Sourced from the western side of our 1970-planted Grenache block on our Rayner Vineyard, where the yields are lower with smaller berries and bunches, and the vines face gently east so miss the hot, late afternoon sun. Planted on sand, this block is dry-grown and managed organically. The fruit is hand-picked.
We really want the Rayner Grenache to be pretty, yet savoury, and generally a more elegant expression of the variety. We believe that this is what our 1970 block wants to produce so we just try to let it express itself as best as we can. To help achieve this we pick a little earlier to catch the red fruits and herb. We use some whole bunch (around 20% in total) for some extra tannin from stalks, which ensures the ageing potential of the wine and provides layers of complexity to the flavours. The wine is fermented and aged for around 6 months in ceramic eggs and old French barrels, before being bottled without fining or filtration.
This wine is available on our Allocations List program, where you can subscribe to receive an annual allocation of this and/or some of our other wines. For more information please click here.
95 points – Gary Walsh, The Wine Front
“Very good Grenache here, it’s lively and gently herbal, raspberry, ripe cherry and almond, quite some spice and dried flower perfume too, a fair bit of mint. Juicy ripe cherry and red fruit, the tannin is a little raspy and stony, and really adds something to the wine. There’s also some raspberry friand sweetness, and it offers mouth-perfume, and excellent length. It’s crisp, but flavoursome. It’s not Blewitt or Clarendon, but gee, it makes an emphatic statement about how good McLaren Vale Grenache can be. So lovely. Juciy juicy, Nice nice.”
"We often think of grenache as a style-choice: hefty or light, ripe or tart. The best ones seem to do both, swinging back and forth on the palate at once. At Bondar, sundrenched and sea breeze-swept, Andre and Selina’s Rayner vineyard captures the tension between those two poles in a generous manner. Fragrant, finessed and fruitful.” – Jonathan Ross, “How to Drink Australian”, 2023
