Bondar Wines

Rayner Vineyard Grenache

Perhaps the most famous parcel in this nationally famed vineyard, this highly awarded Grenache is sourced from the tiny 0.7ha block of the Rayner Vineyard's oldest Grenache vines, a gemstone of the Blewitt Springs. Aiming for a pretty yet savoury, more elegant expression of Grenache, the Bondar's pick their fruit a little earlier than times of old, aiming to catch more of the red fruits and herbal notes and to lend the wine a tightness and structure for greater cellaring potential. This is helped along by some whole bunches in the ferment (around 20%) to take in some extra tannin and gain extra layers of spicy complexity.

This parcel is their lowest-yielding old vines. Andre & Selina opt for a few different mica-ferments of the fruit with varying maceration regimes, recombining them after fermentation for a layer cake of nuanced expression and structure. Some fruit went to ceramic eggs (for no less than 120 days on the skins!) while other fractions fermented whole-bunch and still other fractions fermented de-stemmed but uncrushed (whole-berry). The resulting whole shows terrific complexity and delicacy emphasizing the mystifying aromatics of pure, old-vine Grenache. Only 200 cases were made and we're overjoyed to be able to bring ten of those here to Alberta.

“Old vines from the hallowed turf of Blewitt Springs. A mid-ruby, suggestive of pinot noir. That idea shifts into a higher gear as scents of dried rose petals, kirsch, pomegranate, blood orange and dried thyme fill the space. Full and intense of flavour, yet paradoxically weightless as it shimmers across a scale of tannin from vibrato to tenor, growing in trajectory with air. An excellent, contemporary Vale grenache.”
– 95 points, Ned Goodwin MW for Halliday Wine Companion

"We often think of grenache as a style-choice: hefty or light, ripe or tart. The best ones seem to do both, swinging back and forth on the palate at once. At Bondar, sundrenched and sea breeze-swept, Andre and Selina’s Rayner vineyard captures the tension between those two poles in a generous manner. Fragrant, finessed and fruitful.”
— Jonathan Ross, “How to Drink Australian” 2023