2022 Bondar Clarendon Shiraz

Andre & Selina have had a great relationship with the team at Yangarra since Selina worked there in the time before their own label came to life. So when Dre asked Michael Lane, the viticulturist at Yangarra & Hickinbotham if he could play with a small parcel of Shiraz fruit from their spectacular terraced Clarendon Vineyard, Lane happily obliged.

This is hands down one of the best Shiraz wines ever made by Andre. It's stunning purple fruited and floral aromatic is tamed by an inherent earthiness, it's coiled and controlled and really one of the best Shiraz expression we've seen from the area in some time.

Forgive us for the comparison but it almost has a St Joseph styling for those who are familiar with that particular pocket of the Rhone Valley. Suffice to say it is a remarkably good wine.

Only 60 dozen produced.

96 points
"This is the first year for this cuvée, sourced from the Hickinbotham Vineyard, planted in '71 to rocky, red, ironstone-rich soils. About 30% whole bunch, and the newest oak a 1-year-old Stockinger demi-muid. Vintages subsequent will no doubt see the winemaking tinkered with, but this is a strong debut. Bondar’s quiet making and attention to small detail are there, but the expression is definitively of another site, with a refined drive of red fruits and rocky minerals, a more savoury line, less floral, and with spices perhaps more brown than black. There’s a compression, a firmness of natural tannin encircling fruit, but it’s not hard to see this will unfurl gracefully, as it does over a day or so. This will be a cuvée to follow."
- Marcus Ellis (Halliday Wine Companion)

96 points
"All the blueberries, dried raspberry friand, spice, quite some perfume here too, along with black olive and thyme. It’s medium to full-bodied, somewhat earthy and ferrous, acidity feels bright but well settled, toasted hazelnut, iodine, with impeccable length. Wow, this is a wine of presence and intensity, though not at the expense of charm and drinkability. So good."
- Gary Walsh (The Wine Front)