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Description
Packed with new releases, this is the perfect (and great value!) way to get to know this excellent family-owned McLaren Vale label.
Featuring a selection of wines fresh of their gong of Best Value Winery at the Halliday Wine Awards, this is the perfect place to start!
- 2025 Bondar Nero
- 2025 Bondar Junto GSM
- 2024 Bondar Violet Hour Shiraz
- 2025 Bondar Rayner Vineyard Grenache
- 2023 Bondar Rayner Vineyard Shiraz
2025 Bondar Nero
Andre and Selina Bondar have a real knack for making wines that are high on the "gluggability" scale, and their Nero d’Avola is the poster child for that style. Sourced from two distinct McLaren Vale sites - one in Tatachilla and one in Willunga - it’s a bright, energetic red that prioritises fun and freshness over heavy structure.
The winemaking is all about balance. The Willunga fruit gets a massive 90% whole-bunch treatment to dial up the perfume and spice, while the Tatachilla parcel is destemmed to keep the fruit core juicy and soft. Because it comes from younger vines, the wine has a lovely light feel to it, full of crunchy red berries and a zesty lift that makes it incredibly easy to put away.
This is the ultimate "anytime" red. It’s unpretentious, vibrant, and perfectly suited to a 15-minute stint in the fridge before serving. It’s a small-batch release that usually disappears quickly, so it’s worth grabbing a few while it’s around.
95 points
"Black jellybean, black cherry pastille and raspberry gelée – not confected, but feeling essence-like, pure. The palate is refined, missing the sweet, pulpy core so common in the variety. Spice and savouriness deepen the interest, with tobacco, amaro and panforte spices – an Italian Christmas feel – along with a tar/bitumen character. Modest of weight, supple, textural, with finely tooled Bondar tannins. One of the better neros out there."
- Marcus Ellis (Halliday Wine Companion)
2025 Bondar Junto GSM
"Junto" is Spanish for "together," and that sums up the philosophy behind this wine perfectly. It is Andre and Selina Bondar's take on the classic McLaren Vale blend, but stripped of the heaviness you might expect from the region. This is designed to be fine, frisky and fresh, a wine built for bistros and backyards rather than the cellar.
The 2025 release is Grenache-dominant (72%), providing the perfume and juicy red fruit core. Mataro (13%) adds a savoury spice and structure, while a small splash of Shiraz contributes a bit of plushness. A notable addition this year is the 7% Counoise from their own vineyard, a variety that helps keep the alcohol in check and lifts the freshness.
To keep things in the lighter spectrum, the fruit is picked early and fermented with around 20% whole bunches. This gives the wine a tight, herbal nerve that cuts through the fruit sweetness. In the glass, it is loaded with blue and red berries, fresh herbs and a savoury lick that keeps you coming back. It is pure McLaren Vale fruit without the sunburn.
"Junto is supposed to be medium bodied, fresh, unpretentious and delicious..."
- Andre Bondar
95 points
"The medium-weighted, accessible, everyday drinking red from Bondar, a wine made to fit the climate and culture of the region. And this nails it, again... Such a beautiful thing."
- Marcus Ellis (Halliday Wine Companion)
2024 Bondar Violet Hour Shiraz
The Violet Hour was the first wine Andre Bondar and Selina Kelly made, and it’s still the best expression of what they do - elegant, energetic McLaren Vale Shiraz with real shape and detail.
Sourced entirely from the Rayner Vineyard, where old vines sit on deep sands threaded with ironstone, the 2024 shows McLaren Vale in its most refined light. There’s red and blue fruit, a little spice and pepper, fine tannins, and just enough flesh to fill the frame. No heavy oak, no excess.
Andre’s goal here has always been to make a wine that’s pure and expressive rather than loud or showy and this vintage nails it. It’s supple, savoury, and built on balance.
96 points
"If you’ve always loved McLaren Vale shiraz, you’ll still be happy here, and if you didn’t think it was for you, you’ll be surprised by how quickly you feel at home."
- Nick Ryan (Top 100 Wines of 2025)
2025 Bondar Rayner Vineyard Grenache
The Rayner Vineyard is legendary for its Shiraz, but the old-vine Grenache plantings on the deep sand of the western edge are arguably Andre Bondar's best assets on the property. Planted in 1970 and entirely dry-grown, this section naturally yields small, highly concentrated berries.
The 2025 vintage threw up a massive challenge, with exceptionally dry conditions cutting yields by a brutal 50%. To save the wine, Andre adapted, pulling in some adjacent vines and, for the first time, incorporating about 30% younger-vine fruit from 10-year-old bush vines planted upslope. This pivot turned out to be a masterstroke - while the old vines provide the baseline power and concentration, the younger fruit adds a beautiful layer of freshness and aromatic lift that defines the vintage.
In the winery, the philosophy remains low-intervention. Fermented with about 20% whole bunches for a touch of savoury grip and perfume, the wine spent six months maturing in old French oak and ceramic eggs before being bottled unfined and unfiltered. It's a lighter, savoury-leaning, and incredibly pure McLaren Vale Grenache, though the '25 is a bit darker and plumper than the past couple of releases. It’s just a thoughtful, confident, and deeply expressive red that lets the sand and the season do all the talking. Outstanding value.
95+ points
"There’s a deepness to this, and some levity. It feels spicier, earthier, less buoyantly red-fruited, although the cranberry, pomegranate and redcurrant notes are there, along with black cherry, spiced plum, raspberry compote, Baharat spicing and, discreetly, the crackling dry herbs of whole-bunch fermentation, a rusted-iron note, too. There’s fine tension, savouriness and drive. Give it a little time. It won't disappoint."
- Marcus Ellis (Halliday Wine Companion)
2023 Bondar Rayner Vineyard Shiraz
This is the big brother to the Violet Hour and the Midnight Hour, standing as the serious, cellar-worthy apex of the Bondar Shiraz lineup. It is drawn exclusively from the two oldest blocks on the Rayner estate, a site that is fast becoming one of the most celebrated in McLaren Vale.
The blend is specific and deliberate. About three-quarters of the fruit comes from Block 24, planted in 1950 on deep sands and ironstone. These dry-grown vines provide the perfume and the muscle of the wine. The remainder comes from Block 1, planted in 1960 on clay and limestone in a cool gully, which provides the structural backbone and grip.
Winemaker Andre Bondar doesn't hold back on the technique here. He utilised a massive 90% whole bunches in the wild fermentation. That high stem component brings a savoury, herbal freshness that cuts right through the old-vine fruit density. Aged for a year in older French oak followed by six months settling in large foudres, this is a complex, structured Shiraz that shows just how elegant the Vale can be.
96 points
"The cool year, the third in a row, plays into the house credo, balancing fruit depth and intensity with pep and floral lift. It’s a very good release."
- Marcus Ellis (Halliday Wine Companion)
Customer Reviews
| Price Bracket | $31 to $40 |
| Country | Australia |
| Region | McLaren Vale |
| Australian State | SA |
| Feature |
High Score |
| Size | 9 |
Bondar Wines
Andre & Selina Bondar - McLaren Vale, SA Discover Bondar Wines
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