Is it possible that Mataro grown in the Barossa Valley can be traced back to the James Busby collection that was planted in 1831 in Sydney.
Yes its possible, perhaps likely, and the importance is that Busby’s collection of valuable old vine clones from France and Spain predates the destruction of these vineyards by phylloxera in the 1870s.
The use of Mataro in Australia until the 1960s was in making fortifieds though Mataro would have been included in Barossa red blends made for the few locals that drank table wines. Penfolds in the experimental reds of the 1950s and 1960s used Mataro and they released a Penfolds Bin 2 Shiraz Mataro. Mataro as a premium wine that was sought after by those with knowledge evolved from the new wave winemakers of the Barossa in the mid-1980s and early 1990s.
Bit by bit the status of Mataro is growing with Glug seeing Mataro as a variety of great significance from warm climate regions.
