2023 Bondar Rosé McLaren Vale

Home > Wines We Love > 2023 Bondar Rosé

In any year, this is a sure candidate for Australia’s top rosé – for both quality and value – and the 2023 is stellar. Red fruits and watermelon are features, as is the typically textural play on the palate that is swiftly refreshed with perfectly balanced acidity.

Producer
Bondar
Region

McLaren Vale
RRP

$30.80
Vintage

2023
Variety/Varieties

Grenache
Alc./Vol.

13%

In any year, this is a sure candidate for Australia’s top rosé – for both quality and value – and the 2023 is stellar. Red fruits and watermelon are features, as is the typically textural play on the palate that is swiftly refreshed with perfectly balanced acidity.

Tasting note

A prettily pale but nonetheless insistent colour, this nails the Pantone swatch Platonic ideal of rosé hues. It goes a step further, too, embracing all the elements that one finds so intoxicating about rosé while never dipping into confection or frivolity. Watermelon, strawberry, redcurrant and peach fuzz feature on the nose and palate, while just enough flex in the mid-palate eases you in but doesn’t linger, keeping refreshment value high. A benchmark mod-Oz rosé

Themes of this wine

Grenache

The great grape of the Southern Rhône, grenache, has also found many homes around the world, from Spain, to Italy, to California, while Australia is home to the world’s oldest productive grenache vines, planted in 1948. Today, a renaissance is seeing the grape championed, with makers in McLaren Vale arguably turning out the most compelling examples.

Cinsault

Cinsault has been grown in Australia since pioneering days, but it has typically been swallowed by blends. However, its ability to shrug off hot and dry conditions and still make elegant wines with plenty of acidity is seeing its star rise in warmer zones like the Barossa Valley. Fragrant and quite pretty, cinsault can have very lifted aromas of red berry fruits, like raspberry, strawberry and cherry, while some blue floral notes, like violet also typically feature. It rarely achieves much more than midweight, with gentle tannins and decent acidity.

Counoise

A minor red grape from the Southern Rhône, counoise is used sparingly in blends, most notably in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. It contributes spice notes and holds its acidity well, so can be used to add freshness, too.

McLaren Vale

While it couldn’t feel any more removed from city life, the McLaren Vale wine region is inside Adelaide’s metropolitan area. And although the township itself is only 40 minutes by car from central Adelaide and vineyards brush up against ever-encroaching housing, McLaren Vale remains unaffected by the urban sprawl. With deeply etched history, the Vale has a slow-paced sense of calm and an extraordinary wealth of untrammelled beauty. It is home to some of this country’s most beautifully pristine beaches, as well as some of the world’s most forward-thinking grape-growers and winemakers. And with over 80 cellar doors, it is an essential destination for wine lovers – and anyone else, for that matter.

Home > Wines We Love > 2022 Bondar ‘Violet Hour’ Shiraz

This was the first cuvée under the Bondar banner, and it remains one of Australian wine’s great bargains. Floral, spicy, buoyantly fruitful, this is supple with both depth and appealing freshness.

Producer
Bondar
Region

McLaren Vale
RRP

$38.50
Vintage

2022
Variety/Varieties

Shiraz (Syrah)
Alc./Vol.

14%

Named after the fading light after Andre Bondar and Selina Kelly had picked the fruit for their first wine in 2012, the ‘Violet Hour’ is a flag in the ground for the Bondar style, where perfume is favoured over heft, and the fruit and site take precedent over winemaking artefact.

Tasting note

Vibrant and forward, there’s a genuine seriousness to this. Anise, sour plum, liqueur and blue floral notes complex classic varietal notes of red and black forest berries. There’s a sandy-sited feel to the expressive perfume, but it’s a wine that is nonetheless grounded in intensity and fruit presence. On the palate, it is supple but also chewy, with an iodine/kelp mineral character adding intriguing regional detail.

Themes of this wine

Syrah/Shiraz

Shiraz dominates the Australian wine industry, accounting for nearly a third of this country’s vines. The grape’s traditional home is in France’s Northern Rhône, with wines that combine elegance and power, while Australia is perhaps best known for the muscular styles from warmer areas. Today, drinkers of Australian shiraz are spoilt for choice with expressions ranging from the elegant and spicy to the monumental.

2023 Bondar Rosé McLaren Vale

In any year, this is a sure candidate for Australia’s top rosé – for both quality and value – and the 2023 is stellar. Red fruits and watermelon are features, as is the typically textural play on the palate that is swiftly refreshed with perfectly balanced acidity.

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Grenache

Cinsault

Counoise

McLaren Vale

Named after the fading light after Andre Bondar and Selina Kelly had picked the fruit for their first wine in 2012, the ‘Violet Hour’ is a flag in the ground for the Bondar style, where perfume is favoured over heft, and the fruit and site take precedent over winemaking artefact.

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Syrah/Shiraz

McLaren Vale

Bookmark this job

Save this search

Create Resume