Bondar
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.
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"Forget, if you can, the fact that few wineries can match Bondar on value – not easy given that no less than nine of its wines were awarded the Special Value icon in the current Companion. Instead, concentrate on the fact that Bondar’s McLaren Vale wines are full of energy, drive, fruit power and more. Bondar’s wines are of such relentless quality that everything produced here is almost guaranteed to be good."
- Campbell Mattinson (Halliday Wine Companion - Top 100 Wineries of 2023)
“Bondar is certainly a name worth becoming familiar with.”Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
James Halliday’s Best New Winery in his 2017 Australian Wine Companion
Andre Bondar named in the Top 50 “Young Guns of Wine” in Australia 2018 and 2020
Rayner Vineyard named in the Top 50 Vineyards in Australia 2021 (Young Gun of Wine)
