International Fine Wines
International Fine Wines
International Fine Wines
International Fine Wines

Bondar

“Ethereal quality” from a Young McLaren Vale Star

Exciting times are these for Australian wine. Times when quality small producers are popping up everywhere across the viticultural landscape. Times when many of these producers are striving to make delicious, lighter-bodied, fresher, purer, more digestible wines that have a strong sense of place. And now, most significantly, it is a time when some of these producers are realising that it is in the vineyard activity—more specifically the way their vineyards are planted and the way they are managed—that will ultimately determine the quality and uniqueness of the wines they are able to produce. Bondar is certainly at the heart of this zeitgeist.

Established in 2012, Bondar is the vision of husband-and-wife team Andre Bondar and Selina Kelly. Andre, with a history as a winemaker in the Adelaide Hills and Selina with a background in marketing and law, have planted roots (literally) in the north of McLaren Vale, Their new home is the Rayner Vineyard on Chalk Hill Road, where plantings of old bush vine Grenache and Shiraz vines up to 65-years-old are already in play, while newer, closer planted Counoise (one of the 13 Châteauneuf varieties) has been recently planted, and Mataro, Carignan and Cinsault are on the horizon.

“There must be a bit of magic behind Bondar. All of the wines have an ethereal quality” Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion

Straddling the Blewitt Springs and Seaview subregions, the Rayner Vineyard was planted in the 1950s. Today, under the meticulous management of Andre Bondar and Ben Lacey, the Rayner site is only now beginning to reveal its true potential. As the investment in the vineyard continues apace—with a focus on building soil health and microbial diversity—Bondar notes that this terroir and its old vines have begun to disclose a unique and consistent brand of freshness and elegance that screams of this deep sandy site. In tandem with the ascent of its vineyard, Bondar’s star continues its rise.

Andre sees his role in translating the Rayner site into the wines as minimalist, and he picks earlier than many to catch the fresh fruit flavours intrinsic to Bondar’s graphic and fresh calling card. Native yeasts and gentle, extended extractions are par for the course, as is the use of mainly older hogsheads, puncheons and now demi-muids. Whole bunches are used extensively to introduce some more savoury characters to complement the purity of fruit that Rayner delivers. Regardless of the source of fruit, Andre and Selina want to make, in their own words, ‘… wines that are bright, structured, mid-weight, yet concentrated in flavour, and with a savoury element’. And of course, they want to make the finest quality possible. Terrific quality and remarkable pricing make for a heady mix and have gained Bondar the strong following they thoroughly deserve.

The Range

Bondar Rosé 2024
Bondar Rosé 2024
$28.00
Added

Bondar Rosé 2024

Once again, Grenache plays the starring role in Bondar’s Rosé, weighing in at 91% of the blend with the balance Cinsault and Mataro. Most of the fruit comes from Andre and Selina Bondar’s Rayner vineyard, with a small portion of Grenache sourced from an old sandy site in Blewitt Springs. Most Grenache vines at the sandy Rayner Vineyard are 50 years old, with a small block of younger material also included in the mix. The Cinsault and Mataro are grown on the home site. Andre uses a variety of techniques to build complexity and texture. The Grenache from the grower, young-vine Grenache from the Rayner vineyard and Cinsault fermented at cool temperatures to preserve bright, primary characters. Then, for weight, texture and savoury character, the older-vine Grenache from the Rayner vineyard and the Mataro fermented at warm temperatures in old oak. The result is a pure, fresh, layered rosé packed with juicy red fruit flavour, chalky, pithy grip and a refreshingly long watermelon drenched close. 

“A shimmering rose gold in hue, this continues the impeccable lineage of this wine, with flavours of cranberry, watermelon, tart redcurrant, subtle pink grapefruit and musk. As always, those flavours are suggestive, melding into each other, eschewing obviousness for refinement and effortless class. This is properly dry, with a gentle tug of savoury grip, set against a core of succulent fruit purity and finely tuned texture. Superb.”
96 points, Marcus Ellis, The Wine Companion
Bondar Rosé 2024
Bondar Rosé 2024
$28.00
Added
Bondar Adelaide Hills Chardonnay 2023
$41.00
Added

Bondar Adelaide Hills Chardonnay 2023

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. 

“Lime and lime rind, floral, nutty and spicy, almond and white peach. It’s a lively wine, excellent intensity, a bold and juicy cut of acidity, so much zing, yet folded into gently creamy nutty and biscuity folds of savoury goodness. There’s a slight struck match character, and the finish is all sweet lime and spice, with terrific length and saline spicy character. Classic fine-boned Hills Chardonnay here, and so lovely.”
95 points, Gary Walsh, The Wine Front
“From the Rathmine vineyard, which has supplied fruit for the Bondar chardonnay from the get-go ('13). A very cool year and a consequently long harvest. That’s turned up the acidity, but this is no lean style. One new Austrian demi-muid made up a quarter of the make, with remaining oak all older French. White nectarine and peach, apple blossom, a nuttiness, with lees and mlf character complexing. This is a chardonnay of flavour depth and character, of savoury textural detail and resolute tension. It’s engaging now, but it will age well, too.”
95 points, Marcus Ellis, The Wine Companion
“Medium depth of bright yellow colour; complex almond meal, butter, smoky charcuterie and toasted hazelnut aromas; a complex wine with lots going on. The taste is fresh and lively, with mouth-watering acidity underpinning lovely soft, fleshy and balanced chardonnay flavours of nectarine and lemon-juice A smart wine indeed.”
95 points, Huon Hooke, The Real Review
Bondar Adelaide Hills Chardonnay 2023
$41.00
Added
Bondar Junto Grenache Shiraz Mataro 2024
$31.00
Added

Bondar Junto Grenache Shiraz Mataro 2024

Junto is Spanish for ‘together’, and in this case means a union of old friends: Grenache (78%), Mataro (12%) and Shiraz (10%). The Grenache is sourced from two sites. The majority comes from Bondar’s Rayner Vineyard, with supplementary fruit from a deep, sandy site in Blewitt Springs. The Shiraz is also home-grown Rayner fruit (70-year-old vines on sand), while the Mataro–at its highest proportion ever in a Junto release, thanks to the warm conditions and outstanding quality–was sourced from the Lacey vineyard in the foothills of Willunga on the famed, rocky Kurrajong soils. All the fruit fermented with indigenous yeasts and matured in old oak for eight months. As always, the blend was composed with the idea that Grenache is the hero, with Shiraz supporting with roundness and depth and the Mataro lending spice, structure and tannin. Predictably, 2024 Junto is a lively, vibrant wine with restraint, energy and sheer drinkability.

Bondar Junto Grenache Shiraz Mataro 2024
$31.00
Added
Bondar Monastrell 2023
Bondar Monastrell 2023
$36.00
Added

Bondar Monastrell 2023

Bondar’s Monastrell is a limited release (only 100 dozen are made). The fruit grows on the Lacey vineyard in Willunga, where rocky clay loam soils lie over the revered Kurrajong geology formation. The almost 20-year-old vines are farmed with minimal inputs, and the winemaking follows a similar path, with handpicking, no additions and bottling without fining or filtration. A portion of the fruit fermented as bunches, and the wine matured for 15 months in seasoned French hogsheads. Andre Bondar has chosen the moniker Monastrell rather than the more popular Mataro or Mourvèdre because he aims for a more savoury, spicy, medium-bodied wine than the tannic beasts the region is known for. Andre has always maintained that marginal conditions produce magnificent results, and 2023 releases like this prove as much. It’s brightly perfumed, with berry fruits, spice and lovely bunchy complexity. It strikes a delicious balance between fruit and savoury tones, with fresh structure and a lasting close. Smashing stuff.

Bondar Monastrell 2023
Bondar Monastrell 2023
$36.00
Added
Bondar Nero 2024
$36.00
Added

Bondar Nero 2024

This year, Andre Bondar sourced Nero d’Avola from two vineyards. Andre has been working with one of the sites for years, located in the Sellicks Foothills subregion behind Willunga, where the soil is rocky alluvial clay. Here, the vines sit at 100 metres, face west and give fruit with high-toned aromatics and soft, red berry character. The second site is located near Tatachilla, between Andre and Selina’s McLaren Vale home and the sea. This site's soil is black Biscay clay and gives a contrasting profile, with more density, darkness and structure. Being a warmer site, Tatachilla was picked first, followed three weeks later by Willunga. The Tatachilla fruit was destemmed and fermented for 12 days, while the Willunga fruit fermented as bunches for two weeks. Blending and bottling occurred in September. Now in its sixth year, Andre Bondar continues to craft a youthful and fresh Nero that exudes youthful splendour. True to the season, the 2024 Nero is a cool, fresh, brightly flavoured wine with all the berry fruits, spice and earthy flavours inherent to the variety, backed up by lively acidity and a delicious savoury close. A joy to drink. 

Bondar Nero 2024
$36.00
Added
Bondar Midnight Hour Shiraz 2023
$49.00
Added

Bondar Midnight Hour Shiraz 2023

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 2023 season followed the La Niña pattern of the preceding two years, meaning conditions were cool, particularly in summer and autumn. In fact, it was the coolest season for decades in McLaren Vale. Once again, yields were low, and harvest came late, with fruit coming off the vine two to three weeks later than the previous decade’s average. Cool conditions meant Bondar’s Shiraz spent a lengthy spell on the vine, developing complexity to match the low-yield flavour intensity. Andre Bondar incorporates full stems into the Midnight Hour ferments, a technique he picked up in the Northern Rhône. Maturation takes place in used French oak over a 15-month period. It’s a complex wine of deep flavour, silky yet firm texture and an alluring, pure-fruited profile.

Bondar Midnight Hour Shiraz 2023
$49.00
Added
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AT-A-GLANCE

• Andre and Selina Bondar established Bondar in 2012 with the purchase of Rayner Vineyard.

• The site is in the north of McLaren Vale on the border of Blewitt Springs and Seaview. It has deep sandy soils with ironstone rocks throughout.

• The 1950s-planted vineyard is dry-grown, organically managed and home to old bush-vine Shiraz and Grenache, with recent plantings of Counoise, Mataro, Carignan and Cinsault.

• The Bondars also purchase fruit—including Chardonnay, Fiano and Monastrell—from like-minded growers in McLaren Vale and Adelaide Hills.

• The style hinges on freshness: picking is earlier than most, extractions are gentle, and new oak is used sparingly.

• The range includes entry-level blends and straight varietals in white, red and rosé, plus premium, single-vineyard reds.

IN THE PRESS

“There must be a bit of magic behind Bondar. All of the wines have an ethereal quality” Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion

“Marquee McLaren Vale vineyard now in the hands of some really good people, really good winemakers. It’s a very exciting proposition. The resulting wines, so far, short as the tenure has been, have been great.” Mike Bennie, The Wine Front

“Andre Bondar and Selina Kelly began a deliberately unhurried journey in '09, which culminated in the purchase of the celebrated Rayner Vineyard post-vintage ’13. Andre had been a winemaker at Nepenthe wines for 7 years, and Selina had recently completed a law degree. They changed focus and began to look for a vineyard capable of producing great red wines. Rayner had all the answers: a ridge bisecting the land, Blewitt Springs sand on the eastern side; and heavier clay loam soils over limestone on the western side. The vineyard has been substantially reworked and includes 10ha of shiraz, with smaller amounts of grenache, mataro, touriga, carignan, cinsaut and counoise, all of which are tended to with modern winemaking.” ★★★★★ Halliday Wine Companion

Country

Australia

Primary Region

McLaren Vale, South Australia

People

Winemaker: Andre Bondar

Availability

VIC, QLD, SA, TAS, WA

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