2022 Bondar Clarendon Shiraz

Highly Rated
Incredibly limited debut Shiraz from the famous Hickinbotham vineyard in Clarendon, told through a Bondar lens. Just 60 dozen made.

Price:
Sale price$75.00
Stock:
In stock, ready to ship, only 2 units left
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Description

Andre & Selina have had a great relationship with the team at Yangarra since Selina worked there in the time before their own label came to life. So when Dre asked Michael Lane, the viticulturist at Yangarra & Hickinbotham if he could play with a small parcel of Shiraz fruit from their spectacular terraced Clarendon Vineyard, Lane happily obliged.

This is hands down one of the best Shiraz wines ever made by Andre. It's stunning purple fruited and floral aromatic is tamed by an inherent earthiness, it's coiled and controlled and really one of the best Shiraz expression we've seen from the area in some time.

Forgive us for the comparison but it almost has a St Joseph styling for those who are familiar with that particular pocket of the Rhone Valley. Suffice to say it is a remarkably good wine.

Only 60 dozen produced.

96 points
"This is the first year for this cuvée, sourced from the Hickinbotham Vineyard, planted in '71 to rocky, red, ironstone-rich soils. About 30% whole bunch, and the newest oak a 1-year-old Stockinger demi-muid. Vintages subsequent will no doubt see the winemaking tinkered with, but this is a strong debut. Bondar’s quiet making and attention to small detail are there, but the expression is definitively of another site, with a refined drive of red fruits and rocky minerals, a more savoury line, less floral, and with spices perhaps more brown than black. There’s a compression, a firmness of natural tannin encircling fruit, but it’s not hard to see this will unfurl gracefully, as it does over a day or so. This will be a cuvée to follow."
- Marcus Ellis (Halliday Wine Companion)

96 points
"All the blueberries, dried raspberry friand, spice, quite some perfume here too, along with black olive and thyme. It’s medium to full-bodied, somewhat earthy and ferrous, acidity feels bright but well settled, toasted hazelnut, iodine, with impeccable length. Wow, this is a wine of presence and intensity, though not at the expense of charm and drinkability. So good."
- Gary Walsh (The Wine Front)

96 points - "This is the first year for this cuvée, sourced from the Hickinbotham Vineyard, planted in '71 to rocky, red, ironstone-rich soils. About 30% whole bunch, and the newest oak a 1-year-old Stockinger demi-muid. Vintages subsequent will no doubt see the winemaking tinkered with, but this is a strong debut. Bondar’s quiet making and attention to small detail are there, but the expression is definitively of another site, with a refined drive of red fruits and rocky minerals, a more savoury line, less floral, and with spices perhaps more brown than black. There’s a compression, a firmness of natural tannin encircling fruit, but it’s not hard to see this will unfurl gracefully, as it does over a day or so. This will be a cuvée to follow." - Marcus Ellis (Halliday Wine Companion)

96 points - "All the blueberries, dried raspberry friand, spice, quite some perfume here too, along with black olive and thyme. It’s medium to full-bodied, somewhat earthy and ferrous, acidity feels bright but well settled, toasted hazelnut, iodine, with impeccable length. Wow, this is a wine of presence and intensity, though not at the expense of charm and drinkability. So good."
Gary Walsh (The Wine Front)

A small production and limited release wine.

Sourced from the famous Hickinbotham vineyard in Clarendon. Farmed biodynamically, dry grown, rocky red, ironstone rich soils, planted in 1971. This is a revered site in McLaren Vale, situated much further inland than our Rayner Vineyard, and at 250m altitude, this is a very different expression of Shiraz. Finer, with ferrous quality and red fruits, there is a tightness and coiled power.

60 dozen bottles made.

Price Bracket $51 to $100
Type Red
Body Full Bodied
Variety Shiraz
Country Australia
Region McLaren Vale
Australian State SA
Feature High Score
Reviewed By Halliday Wine Companion
The Wine Front
Critic Score 96
Size 750ml
Vintage 2022
Closure Cork

Bondar Wines

Andre & Selina Bondar are one of the great modern Australian wine success stories. We have been massive fans of their wines since their very first vintage and tell anyone who will listen that if you want to taste what modern McLaren Vale wines are all about then this is who you need to try.

Their home block, the highly decorated Rayner Vineyard, which straddles the Blewitt Springs and Seaview sub-regions of The Vale, was originally planted back in the 1950s but the Bondar family chapter in that vineyard's story will be its most significant. Dre and Sel's wines are honest and vibrant, built more on freshness and digestibility rather than raw South Australian power.

They make brilliant, vibrant Grenache, balanced and concentrated Shiraz, elegant Adelaide Hills Chardonnay, and one of the country's most bankable Rose wines plus a raft of small-batch alternative varieties. Their range nails quality and drinkability at every turn.

Andre & Selina Bondar - McLaren Vale, SA Discover Bondar Wines

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