Junto is Spanish for ‘together’, and in this case means a union of old friends: Grenache (78%), Mataro (12%) and Shiraz (10%). The Grenache is sourced from two sites. The majority comes from Bondar’s Rayner Vineyard, with supplementary fruit from a deep, sandy site in Blewitt Springs. The Shiraz is also home-grown Rayner fruit (70-year-old vines on sand), while the Mataro–at its highest proportion ever in a Junto release, thanks to the warm conditions and outstanding quality–was sourced from the Lacey vineyard in the foothills of Willunga on the famed, rocky Kurrajong soils.

All the fruit fermented with indigenous yeasts and matured in old oak for eight months. As always, the blend was composed with the idea that Grenache is the hero, with Shiraz supporting with roundness and depth and the Mataro lending spice, structure and tannin. Predictably, 2024 Junto is a lively, vibrant wine with restraint, energy and sheer drinkability.

Bondar’s high-toned and beautifully pure Grenache is sourced from the 1970 block in the Rayner Vineyard. The vines sit on very sandy soils (part of the Pirramimma sandstone geology) and are dry-grown and organically managed. Facing east on the site's western side, these particularly low-yielding vines miss out on the hot late-afternoon sun during summer and produce small bunches and berries. These vines are marked and picked specifically for this wine.

Seeking a pretty but savoury style, the Bondar team picks Grenache a little earlier than many of their peers, helping to capture the fruit’s red fruit and herbal characteristics. To further build structure and longevity, 20% bunches are used in spontaneous ferments. The wine ages for six months in ceramic eggs and mature French barrels. From another cool, late season in McLaren Vale, this year’s Rayner Grenache combines lacy red fruit character with bright acidity, perfume and spice. This is McLaren Vale Grenache in its purest guise.

Named after the evocative sky beneath which Andre Bondar and Selina Kelly picked the last Shiraz bunches for their first-ever release of this wine, Violet Hour is a blend of fruit from 10 blocks in Bondar’s Rayner vineyard. Each block has a different aspect, and soils range from deep sand with ironstone rocks to clay over limestone. The Shiraz vines are some of the oldest on the property, reaching 70 years in some blocks—a key to understanding the depth and detail this wine can express.

Violet Hour encapsulates the Bondar style—fragrance, juicy fruit and lightness of touch. The winemaking is adapted to the season; whole-bunch and destemmed fruit are used, and the juice spends varying times on skins, depending on the block. The wine sees only seasoned oak, usually for 10 months. The result is a seemingly effortless, transparent, deeply expressive wine that perfectly captures site, season and the Bondar style.

The third in a string of La Niña years in McLaren Vale, 2023 was, in fact, the region’s coolest season in decades. Andre Bondar’s preference is for wines of perfume and restrained power, so these marginal conditions and low yields played right into his hands. Picking came late in the season, giving the fruit plenty of time to hang and develop intense, complex flavour while maintaining high, fresh acid lines. The result is a joyously bright, fragrant, spice-driven wine with dark berry flavours, a warm woodsy feel and purple flower lift. The palate is full and plump, with svelte structure and a bright, long finish.

The Shiraz grapes for Midnight Hour are sourced from two blocks in Andre Bondar and Selina Kelly's own Rayner Vineyard. Planted in 1960 and 1990 on the Seaview side of the vineyard on red/brown clay over limestone, these vines are farmed using organic principles and without irrigation where possible. The soil and age of the vines result in smaller, more open canopies that allow for lots of sunlight to reach the developing bunches. This ensures that stems used in the fermentation are lignified, increasing the complexity of the finished wine.

The 2023 season followed the La Niña pattern of the preceding two years, meaning conditions were cool, particularly in summer and autumn. In fact, it was the coolest season for decades in McLaren Vale. Once again, yields were low, and harvest came late, with fruit coming off the vine two to three weeks later than the previous decade’s average. Cool conditions meant Bondar’s Shiraz spent a lengthy spell on the vine, developing complexity to match the low-yield flavour intensity. Andre Bondar incorporates full stems into the Midnight Hour ferments, a technique he picked up in the Northern Rhône. Maturation takes place in used French oak over a 15-month period. It’s a complex wine of deep flavour, silky yet firm texture and an alluring, pure-fruited profile.

Bondar’s Hope Springs Eternal wines are sourced from vineyards that Andre and Selina consider among the best McLaren Vale sites for each given variety. In the case of Grenache, this means Blewitt Springs in deep sandy soils. Each vineyard must also sit at high elevation to adhere to Bondar’s preference for elegant, fine, quietly powerful wines. This wine used to be labelled Higher Springs Grenache.

Sue Trott’s Wilpena vineyard lies in the heart of Blewitt Springs. The vines were planted in 1952 and are dry-grown on deep sand. It faces steeply east—an uncommon aspect in McLaren Vale, but Bondar’s favoured—and thus misses out on much of the warm, late-afternoon sun. According to Bondar, the Trott vineyard tends towards a darker fruit profile than his Rayner site, alongside impressive power and structure.

To this end, the parcel was split into two ferments, one with 80% bunches and the other with 10%, to build fine structure and bring out the best of the site’s darker-fruited profile. The wine is bottled after 10 months in amphora and seasoned Stockinger demi-muid. The quality of the site, as well as 2023’s cool, fresh signature, shines through in this year’s release. It’s incredibly pure, with high-toned perfumed and a dense, focused, driving core with plenty of savoury depth.

Andre Bondar can’t hide his excitement that he is now working with Shiraz from the famed Hickinbotham Vineyard in Clarendon. This high, dry-grown, biodynamically farmed site was first planted in 1971 in these rocky, ironstone-rich red soils. It’s a revered site in SA circles, supplying Grange, Eileen Hardy and Clarendon Hills, among others, over the years. Clarendon sits considerably further inland than Bondar’s Rayner Vineyard and, at 250m altitude, produces a very different expression of Shiraz. “It’s finer, with ferrous quality and red fruits; there is a tightness and coiled power,” explains Andre.

In a very Bondar way, the winemaking does not detract from the purity of the site. Around 65% bunches were used in the ferment, and the wine matured in seasoned French hogsheads for 14 months. This is the second release of this wine (previously called Clarendon Shiraz). Andre played the first release with a straight bat: minimal bunches and a lick of new oak. Now he’s seen what the fruit can do, he’s incorporated some Bondar flair: the bunches bring an abundance of savoury spice to the intoxicating, potent power of the Hickinbotham fruit. It’s a hell of a wine.