Bondar has made its incisive Chardonnay from the same vineyard in the Adelaide Hills since 2013. The source is the 30-year-old Rathmine vineyard in Echunga, which sits at 450 metres on stony, shallow clay loam over a limestone base. The fruit comes from the steep, east-facing slope planted with the Bernard 76 clone.

All of Bondar’s fruit is handpicked in the cool of the early morning, whole bunch-pressed and fermented naturally in older French oak, with one new Stockinger foudre accounting for approximately 25% of the blend. Bondar does not cool the fermentation to encourage mouthfeel and nutty, complex flavours. The picture is completed by full malolactic conversion and no stirring of the lees to preserve fruit purity. From the cool, late 2023 harvest, it’s perhaps the most coiled and bracing Chardonnay Bondar has released to date. Yet there’s so much fine texture and savoury flavour to balance the wine’s highwire energy. 

This exceptional Shiraz is drawn from the two oldest blocks in the Rayner Vineyard, planted in 1950. Three-quarters of the fruit comes from Block 24 in the northeast corner of the vineyard, on deep sandy soils with ironstone rocks, dry-grown and organically managed. This portion gives wonderful fragrance and elegant structure. The remainder is cropped from Block 1, in the northwestern corner of the vineyard, laying in a cool gully. Dry-grown and organically managed, the shallow clay on the limestone base builds fine structure around the prettier, fleshier sandy portion.

Fermented wild with 20% whole bunches, the wine spent two weeks on skins before 18 months’ aging in mostly used French hogsheads (with 5% new oak as part of the final blend) and was bottled without fining or filtration.

Bondar’s high-toned and beautifully pure Grenache is sourced from the 1970 block in the Rayner Vineyard. The vines sit on very sandy soils (part of the Pirramimma sandstone geology) and are dry-grown and organically managed. Facing east on the site's western side, these low-yielding vines produce small bunches and berries and miss out on the hot late-afternoon sun during summer.

Seeking a pretty but savoury style, the Bondar team picks their Grenache fruit a little earlier than many of their peers, helping to capture the fruit’s red fruit and herbal characteristics. To further aid in building structure and longevity, 20% bunches are used in the natural ferments. The wine is aged for six months in ceramic eggs and French barrels. From the coolest of a troika of La Niña vintages, there’s more lacy red fruits this year even if the result is the same. This is McLaren Vale Grenache in its purest guise.

Sue Trott’s Wilpena vineyard lies in the heart of Blewitt Springs. The vines were planted in 1952 and are dry-grown on deep sand. It faces steeply east—an uncommon aspect in McLaren Vale—and so misses out on much of the warm late-afternoon sun. Of this site, Andre Bondar gushes: “Sometimes when you walk into a vineyard that is this beautiful, you can’t help but think that it must make amazing wine.” Know that feeling, Dre.

According to Bondar, the Trott vineyard tends to a darker fruit profile than his Rayner site, alongside impressive power and structure. To this end, the parcel was split into two ferments, one with 80% bunches and the other with 10%, to aid in building fine structure and bring out the best of the site’s darker-fruited profile. Hand-bottled after 10 months in seasoned Stockinger demi-muid, it’s a shining, savoury expression that will continue to wow for years and years.

Andre Bondar can’t hide his excitement that he is now working with Shiraz from the famed Hickinbotham vineyard in Clarendon. Biodynamically farmed, this dry-grown elevated site was first planted on rocky, ironstone-rich red soils in 1971. It’s a revered site in SA circles, supplying Penfolds Grange, Eileen Hardy and Clarendon Hills, among others, over the years. Clarendon sits considerably further inland than Bondar’s Rayner Vineyard and, at 250m altitude, produces a very different expression of Shiraz. “It’s finer, with ferrous quality and red fruits; there is a tightness and coiled power,” explains Andre.

In a very Bondar way, the winemaking does not detract from the purity of the site. Around 30% bunches were used in the ferment, and 20% of the wine matured in a one-year-old Stockinger demi-muid. “Year one was an investigation into how this fruit looks relatively unhindered, and the results are beautiful,” says Bondar. “It gives us confidence to bring in some technique in the coming years.” It’s an intoxicating addition to Bondar’s already star-studded portfolio.

This year’s blend is a similar composition to the 2022: Grenache (84%), Cinsault (13%) and Counoise (3%). The lion’s share of the Grenache was grown on the sandy soils of the Rayner home vineyard with the balance coming from two growers, both with sites in Blewitt Springs on deep sandy soils, planted in 1975 and the mid-1990s respectively. The Cinsault and Counoise are grown on the Rayner vineyard.

In the cellar, Andre uses a variety of techniques to build complexity and texture. The Grenache from the growers, along with the Cinsault, Counoise and young-vine Grenache from the Rayner vineyard, fermented at cool temperatures to preserve bright, primary characters. Then, for weight and savoury character, the older-vine Grenache from the Rayner vineyard fermented at warm temperatures in old oak. The result is a fresh and pure rosé, with layers of flavour, lovely grip and a super clean, refreshing finish.

Junto is Spanish for ‘together’, and in this case means a union of old friends: Grenache (65%), Shiraz (16%), Mataro (8%) and Carignan (3%). The Grenache is culled from three separate blocks: the lion’s share is from Bondar's own Rayner vineyard with the balance coming from the Trott Wilpena and Slattery Vineyards in Blewitt Springs. The Shiraz is also home-grown Rayner fruit (70-year-old vines on sand), while the Mataro was sourced from a grower in the foothills of Willunga on the famed Kurrajong soils. The tiny addition of Carignan was drawn from young plantings in the Rayner vineyard.

All the fruit was wild-fermented with approximately 20% whole-bunches, then raised in old oak for eight months. The blend was put together with the idea that Grenache heroes, with Shiraz supporting with flesh and the Mataro with spice, structure and tannin. The Carignan adds further finesse to the palate and contributes to the complexity. As always, Junto is a lively, vibrant wine with the restraint, energy and sheer drinkability that was once hardly known in the McLaren Vale.

Named after the evocative sky beneath which Andre Bondar and Selina Kelly picked the last Shiraz bunches for their first-ever release of this wine, Violet Hour is a blend of fruit from 10 blocks in Bondar’s Rayner vineyard. Each block has a different aspect and soils range from deep sand with ironstone rocks to clay over limestone. The Shiraz vines are some of the oldest on the property, reaching 70 years in some blocks—a key to understanding the depth and detail this wine can express.

Violet Hour encapsulates the Bondar style—fragrance, juicy fruit and lightness of touch. The winemaking is adapted to the season; both whole-bunch and destemmed fruit are used and the juice spends varying times on skins, depending on the block. The wine sees seasoned oak only, usually for 10 months. The result is a seemingly effortless, transparent and deeply expressive wine that perfectly captures site, season and the Bondar style.

Similar to 2021, vintage 2022 was a relatively cool season in McLaren Vale and facilitated a long, even and stress-free ripening period.  The result is a joyously fragrant and spice-driven Shiraz with svelte structure, bright acidity and length for days.

Bondar’s Monastrell is a limited release (only 100 dozen are made). It comes from fruit off the Lacey vineyard in Willunga, where rocky clay loam soils lie over the revered Kurrajong geology formation. The 15-year-old vines here are farmed with minimal inputs, and the winemaking follows a similar path, with hand-picking, no additions, and bottling unfined and unfiltered. A portion of the fruit was fermented as whole bunches, and maturation was for 13 months in seasoned French hogsheads.

Andre Bondar has chosen the moniker Monastrell rather than the more popular Mataro or Mourvèdre, as he aims for a more savoury, medium-bodied wine than the tannic beasts the region is known for.

It is brightly perfumed with berry fruits, exotic spices and enticing whole-bunch notes. The palate brings a more savoury and mineral layer to the warmly spiced fruit, fresh structure and vivid flavour. It leaves a lasting and forceful impression, so it’s easy to understand why this wine has garnered a cult-like following.

The Shiraz grapes for Midnight Hour are sourced from two blocks in Andre Bondar and Selina Kelly's own Rayner Vineyard. Planted in 1960 and 1990 on the Seaview side of the vineyard on red/brown clay over limestone, these vines are farmed using organic principles and without irrigation where possible. The soil and age of the vines result in smaller, more open canopies that allow for lots of sunlight to reach the developing bunches. This ensures that stems used in the fermentation are lignified, increasing the complexity of the finished wine.

The 2022 vintage was similar to 2021. with La Niña driving a cooler-than-usual summer and autumn. Thankfully the wet conditions that can also be a feature of this weather pattern missed Bondar's McLaren Vale home. The cooler conditions delayed the start of vintage by two weeks, so the team was harvesting into the shorter days and longer nights of autumn. Given the stable ripening, Shiraz had more time on the vine, with no rush to pick. The resulting profile brings together red and black fruits with a lot of aromatic lift and a slightly lighter mouthfeel from the cool year.

The bunches for Midnight Hour were harvested by hand and fermented with 100% of their stems. Andre and Selina learned the technique during their time working harvest in the northern Rhône. The wine from each batch aged in used French oak for 15 months. The result is a Shiraz with layers of complex flavour, yet an intriguing, textural, black fruit-laden palate.