Roman Bratasiuk

Coming Up

Since 1990, Roman Bratasiuk has been the founder and winemaker of Clarendon Hills, and that long run is the point. The estate has been built through accumulation rather than reinvention, with each season adding to a fixed idea of what the wines should be. Over time, Clarendon Hills and Bratasiuk’s name have become closely linked through that sustained commitment to clarity, precision, and identity.

Where They Are Now

Bratasiuk is winemaker at Clarendon Hills in Blewitt Springs, Australia. His work sits on structure first: line, balance, and restraint before ornament. The aim is not to flatten the wine, but to give it force without excess. As he puts it: "I make wines that have got intensity of flavor but they’ve got great balance and integration and complexity." That is a plain statement of method, and it points to a style built to hold together under pressure, with depth kept inside a disciplined frame.

Signature

Roman's signature wines include Astralis Syrah, Romas Grenache, and Blewitt Springs Old Vine Grenache. The names track directly to his long relationship with the estate and its fruit, and together they show a consistent approach to intensity, balance, and layered complexity. These wines are closely associated with his work because they reflect the same priorities that define the rest of the portfolio.

In Their Words “I buy Tronçais oak barrels, I pay a full-time vineyard manager to work with all these growers, and I pay top dollar to get them to keep the yields down.” “I make wines that have got intensity of flavor but they’ve got great balance and integration and complexity.” Taken together, these lines show how Bratasiuk approaches the trade: materially, systematically, and with attention to the parts that shape the whole. The oak, the vineyard work, and the yield discipline all sit inside the same framework. The goal is not simply control, but wines that arrive with force and stay composed through the finish.