Violet Hour Shiraz

Bondar Wines

“The Violet Hour is a flag in the ground for the Bondar style, where perfume is favoured over heft, and the fruit and site take precedent over winemaking artefact.” – Young Gun of Wine, 2023

This is the new Aussie Shiraz, a wine hailed as such by so many, a wine you can’t put down. The Rayner Vineyard’s old vine Shiraz (dating back to 1947) gives its fresher expression in the ‘Violet Hour’ cuvée by using whole-bunch fermentation, gentler cap management, and an extended time on the skins. These crucial choices create an ethereal lift on the nose, a multi-dimensional hue of fresh fruit flavours, and a silken texture on the palate.

Organoleptics: Before this even reaches my nose, wow, this eye-widening density of blue fruit with a side-chained harmony of macerated violet florals, reminiscent of Creme Yvette. On the palate a more anisette-like profile with spicy blueberry and a twist of just-cracked peppercorn. The acid here is just right too, perhaps its most alluring feature, neither over-asserted for a new-school natty style nor floundering with that Aussie flabbiness of the early aughts, it is just right, pulling the wine into textbook balance, allowing for an opulent, open, lush shiraz; a shiraz that is big without being boisterous; a shiraz that oak has helped elaborate without imposing oak’s spice; a shiraz that will convince the most ardent Aussie skeptic while delighting the most seasoned Aussie addict (take the inveterate James Halliday for example — he’s given the Violet Hour Shiraz 97 points three out of the last four vintages and twice named it in his Top 100 Aussie Wines list in 2019 and 2021).

Violet Hour should improve with grace over the next five years to ten years but is also excellent out the gate.

2022 reviews:

“Fragrant and vivid, this comes off Rayner vineyard blocks planted mainly to deep, sandy soils. Batches are fermented with varying levels of bunches, berries and time on skins; 10 months in seasoned oak. The aim is to express the perfume that sandy soil can yield in the fruit, framed but unobstructed by elaboration to bottle. And what a success it is. Blackberry, blueberry, cherry and damson plum scented with purple florals, anise and clove, a ferrous mineral note tempering. Mid-weight, supple of texture but shored up with a fine, detailed net of tannin – and that mineral tension – this is harmonious and poised, everything serenely balanced, unstretched. To echo an earlier review, this is a tremendous bargain.” — 95 points, Marcus Ellis, The Wine Companion

“Deep purple from core to rim. Blueberry, chocolate and cola aromas. Dark fruits, crushed violets and subtle pepper spice notes meld seamlessly with fine acid and dusty tannins to carry it long and lingering. A more modern style of McLaren Vale shiraz that offers a lighter touch, but still has that Vale sense of generosity. Great value here.” — 92 points, Stuart Knox, The Real Review