Bondar best new winery in James Halliday awards for 2017

Andre Bondar and Selina Kelly clearly remember picking the grapes for their first vintage just four years ago.

Andre Bondar and Selina Kelly at their McLaren Vale winery in South Australia. Picture: Josh Geelan.

It was one of those bright orange sunsets that seems to last forever, the type that South Australia’s McLaren Vale specialises in, as friends and family of Andre Bondar and his wife, Selina Kelly, picked the grapes for the couple’s first vintage. “We only picked one tonne, and you could fit that on the back of a ute,’’ Bondar says.

“We did it in a night because in the McLaren Vale that is often March, end of February, and there are beautiful warm days and the sun seems to take forever to set.”

That was only four years ago, and from the smallest of ventures Bondar Wines, founded by Bondar and Kelly, was named best new winery for 2017 at the James Halliday Wine Companion Awards in Melbourne last night.

The criteria for best new winery include the number of wines earning 95 points or more, and value for money. Bondar soared above 67 other new wineries to take top spot, with three wines scoring 95 points — a chardonnay, a shiraz and a grenache from the Rayner Vineyard.

Bondar started his wine journey in 2001, spending most of his winemaking career at Nepenthe in the Adelaide Hills. He also cites time working at Domaine Alain Graillot in the northern Rhone, France, as a key influence.

Kelly came to wine from the law, swapping billable hours and poring over contracts for the dirt, barrels and excitement of a winery.

“It was a really hard decision at the time but I have never ever regretted it,’’ she says.

For both of them, the memory of that first harvest still resonates strongly.

“Well, we knew we were enjoying ourselves and that we were on to something good,’’ Bondar says.

“We both understood when we were starting Bondar Wines that the vineyard was going to be the key; that is the soul of our wine brand and that I think that clearly captured the judges’ attention.”

It sure did. As Halliday says in his new book, “You make your own luck, and they were in the right place at the right time to be able to buy one of McLaren Vale’s best vineyards, Rayner.”

Last night at the National Gallery of Victoria, guests of the Halliday Wine Companion Awards dinner quaffed 26 wines worth more than $95,000, including a perfect 100-point Seppeltsfield Para Tawny retailing for $700 per 100ml.

Sarah Crowe, who walked away from her career in a gardening centre for the benefit of all wine drinkers, was named by Halliday as winemaker of the year for 2017, after carving out a remarkable reputation at the Yarra Valley’s Yarra Yering. She becomes the first woman to win the prestigious award.

The Hunter Valley’s Mount Pleasant, established in 1921, was named winery of the year, with seven of its shiraz labels scoring between 97 and 99 points, supported by three semillons scoring more than 95 points. Halliday credited the appointment of chief winemaker Jim Chatto in 2013 as key to the winery’s growing success and the renaissance of Australia’s original winemaking region.

Best’s Great Western Thomson Family Shiraz 2014 took out the wine of the year award.

The grapes for the winning wine came from a small block of just 15 rows of shiraz, planted in 1867 and crafted by young gun Justin Purser.

Larry Cherubino Wines won best value winery (Cherubino was winemaker of the Year in 2011). Of the 35 Larry Cherubino wines that appear in the 2017 Halliday Wine Companion, 28 carry the “value” red star.

Dark horse of the year was awarded to Arlewood Estate at the southern end of Western Australia’s Margaret River, with a winery that dates back to 1988.

Featuring 1302 wineries, the 776-­page Halliday Wine Companion 2017 is out today (Hardie Grant, $39.99).

Vincent Garde’s wine reviews return next week.