Description
“In their eponymous Rayner Vineyard cuvée, Shiraz meets Syrah, so to speak. The deep, sandy Aussie soils and their 70+ year old own-rooted vines meet the deft techniques of a lifetime of learning in Australia and the Rhône alike. Bondar’s steady hand comes to life here. In the inclusion of whole bunches in his ferment we see the influence of his time with Alain Graillot in the Rhône (and Graillot’s own experience adapting the lessons of Domaine Dujac’s Jacques Seysses). The resulting wine is remarkable, earning praise and agreement from the new-schoolers and traditionalists alike. As Andre Bondar explains it, they use Shiraz from the two oldest blocks in Rayner Vineyard to build this wine; the 1947 block on dry-grown, deep sandy soils with ironstone rocks gives this wine its wonderful fragrance and elegant fruit; the 1950 planted section is planted in a shallow clay on limestone base and this gives the wine its bones, an age worthy skeleton to carry the wine for many years in cellar.” – Bondar Wines
