Syrah production. This made Shiraz the most planted variety in Australia and Australia the world's second largest Syrah/Shiraz grower, after France. Victorian regions include Heathcote, roughly 1.5 hours north of Melbourne. Cooler climate regions such as Western Australia's Margaret River produce Shiraz with marginally less alcohol content and often in a more traditional French style. A well-known example of the Shiraz grape in Australian viticulture is the Penfolds "Grange". This wine was created by winemaker Max Schubert in 1951 and has a reputation for aging well. The Penfolds Grange is predominantly Shiraz but often includes a small quantity of Cabernet Sauvignon.
Syrah including Côtes-du-Rhône and Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Syrah is also the only red grape used in the wines of the northern Rhône. In 1968, there existed only of Syrah vineyards in France, primarily in the traditional appellations of northern Rhône, which at that time had not received much attention in the wine world for several decades, and the vineyards of which were not planted to full capacity. After the wines of northern Rhône were "rediscovered" by wine writers in the 1970s, plantings expanded considerably. This trend received an extra boost in the 1980s and 1990s, when influential wine writer Robert M. Parker, Jr.