Rayner Vineyard Shiraz

Bondar Wines

In their eponymous Rayner Vineyard cuvée, Shiraz meets Syrah, so to speak. The deep, sandy Aussie soils and their 70+ year old own-rooted vines meet the deft techniques of a lifetime of learning in Australia and the Rhône alike. Bondar’s steady hand comes to life here. In the inclusion of whole bunches in his ferment we see the influence of his time with Alain Graillot in the Rhône (and Graillot’s own experience adapting the lessons of Domaine Dujac’s Jacques Seysses). The resulting wine is remarkable, earning praise and agreement from the new-schoolers and traditionalists alike. As Andre Bondar explains it, they use Shiraz from the two oldest blocks in Rayner Vineyard to build this wine; the 1947 block on dry-grown, deep sandy soils with ironstone rocks gives this wine its wonderful fragrance and elegant fruit; the 1950 planted section is planted in a shallow clay on limestone base and this gives the wine its bones, an age worthy skeleton to carry the wine for many years in cellar.

"Deep, brooding crimson-purple. This is a reproduction of variety and place of the highest quality. It's velvet in the mouth, and mines all the black fruits, dark chocolate, licorice and spice hoped for. The tannins are polished, the oak absorbed by the fruit. Drink to 2051." 97 points, top 20 red wines over $40, James Halliday.

"While I am optimistic about grenache in these parts, I often find the style of shiraz monochromatic. Not in these hands. Despite the heat spikes of a warm year, the sandy blocks across the vineyard thrived. A cool finish to the season, providing perk. All things done right: picking window, use of whole bunches (20%) and a long extraction. Mostly older wood. A textural tour de force. Violet, blueberry, nori, peppery acidity and a licorella tannin line so fine that it could be threaded through the eye of a needle. A beautiful wine." — 96 points, Ned Goodwin MW.