In early times vineyards were not divided into varieties with the grapes arriving at the winery being a random selection of the many varieties as they ripened. The wines would be called red or dry red wine. Since varieties ripen at different times this evolved into a better system of separate blocks for each variety. Perhaps by the 1850s the Barossa Valley was divided into vineyards for each variety. When this consciously led to blending varieties to express an interesting taste I find interesting.
Certainly, Barossa Valley Shiraz Cabernet dates to the 1940s and the Veritas winery was making a Mataro Grenache blend in the 1960s called Bulls Blood. When the first blends of the three varieties, Grenache, Mataro and Shiraz were made I am unsure though likely by the late 1980s. Growing consumer demand means most Barossa wineries now make an example of a GSM
This is a natural blend for the Barossa and moving the percentage of Shiraz helps to display the merits of Grenache and Mataro. The Stockwell Creek range of wines represent those Barossa reds which we believe express a little further the best of Barossa.
