diff --git a/src/main/java/io/aiven/connect/elasticsearch/ElasticsearchWriter.java b/src/main/java/io/aiven/connect/elasticsearch/ElasticsearchWriter.java
index f606166..9d84494 100644
--- a/src/main/java/io/aiven/connect/elasticsearch/ElasticsearchWriter.java
+++ b/src/main/java/io/aiven/connect/elasticsearch/ElasticsearchWriter.java
@@ -284,16 +284,15 @@ private void tryWriteRecord(
         final boolean ignoreKey,
         final boolean ignoreSchema) {
 
+        IndexableRecord record = null;
         try {
-            final IndexableRecord record = converter.convertRecord(
+            record = converter.convertRecord(
                 sinkRecord,
                 index,
                 type,
                 ignoreKey,
-                ignoreSchema);
-            if (record != null) {
-                bulkProcessor.add(record, flushTimeoutMs);
-            }
+                ignoreSchema
+            );
         } catch (final ConnectException convertException) {
             if (dropInvalidMessage) {
                 log.error(
@@ -308,6 +307,10 @@ private void tryWriteRecord(
                 throw convertException;
             }
         }
+
+        if (record != null) {
+            bulkProcessor.add(record, flushTimeoutMs);
+        }
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/src/test/java/io/aiven/connect/elasticsearch/ElasticsearchSinkFailureTest.java b/src/test/java/io/aiven/connect/elasticsearch/ElasticsearchSinkFailureTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..82e5462
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/java/io/aiven/connect/elasticsearch/ElasticsearchSinkFailureTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,109 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2024 Aiven Oy
+ * Copyright 2016 Confluent Inc.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package io.aiven.connect.elasticsearch;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.Collections;
+import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicInteger;
+
+import org.apache.kafka.connect.errors.ConnectException;
+import org.apache.kafka.connect.sink.SinkRecord;
+
+import io.aiven.connect.elasticsearch.bulk.BulkResponse;
+import io.aiven.connect.elasticsearch.jest.JestElasticsearchClient;
+
+import org.junit.Test;
+import org.mockito.Mockito;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertThrows;
+import static org.mockito.ArgumentMatchers.any;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.when;
+
+
+public class ElasticsearchSinkFailureTest {
+
+    @Test
+    public void testRetryIfRecoverable() throws IOException {
+        final ElasticsearchSinkTask elasticsearchSinkTask = new ElasticsearchSinkTask();
+        final int numbRetriesBeforeSucceeding = 3;
+
+        final JestElasticsearchClient failingClient = Mockito.mock(JestElasticsearchClient.class);
+        final AtomicInteger apiCallCounter = new AtomicInteger(0);
+        when(failingClient.executeBulk(any())).thenAnswer(i -> {
+            final int numAttempt = apiCallCounter.incrementAndGet();
+            if (numAttempt < numbRetriesBeforeSucceeding) {
+                return BulkResponse.failure(true, "");
+            }
+            return BulkResponse.success();
+        });
+
+        final Map<String, String> props  = new HashMap<>();
+        props.put(ElasticsearchSinkConnectorConfig.TYPE_NAME_CONFIG, "kafka-connect");
+        props.put(ElasticsearchSinkConnectorConfig.CONNECTION_URL_CONFIG, "localhost");
+        props.put(ElasticsearchSinkConnectorConfig.KEY_IGNORE_CONFIG, "true");
+        props.put(ElasticsearchSinkConnectorConfig.DROP_INVALID_MESSAGE_CONFIG, "true");
+        props.put(ElasticsearchSinkConnectorConfig.MAX_RETRIES_CONFIG, String.valueOf(numbRetriesBeforeSucceeding));
+
+        elasticsearchSinkTask.start(props, failingClient);
+        elasticsearchSinkTask.put(Collections.singletonList(new SinkRecord("topic", 0, null, null, null, "foo", 0)));
+        elasticsearchSinkTask.flush(Collections.emptyMap());
+        // 1 success
+        assertEquals(numbRetriesBeforeSucceeding, apiCallCounter.get());
+        elasticsearchSinkTask.put(Collections.singletonList(new SinkRecord("topic", 0, null, null, null, "bar", 0)));
+        elasticsearchSinkTask.flush(Collections.emptyMap());
+        // 3 retries (the max allowed) + 1 success
+        assertEquals(numbRetriesBeforeSucceeding + 1, apiCallCounter.get());
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testRaiseExceptionIfNot() throws IOException {
+        final ElasticsearchSinkTask elasticsearchSinkTask = new ElasticsearchSinkTask();
+        final JestElasticsearchClient failingClient = Mockito.mock(JestElasticsearchClient.class);
+        final AtomicInteger apiCallCounter = new AtomicInteger(0);
+        when(failingClient.executeBulk(any())).thenAnswer(i -> {
+            apiCallCounter.incrementAndGet();
+            return BulkResponse.failure(false, "");
+        });
+
+        final Map<String, String> props = new HashMap<>();
+        props.put(ElasticsearchSinkConnectorConfig.TYPE_NAME_CONFIG, "kafka-connect");
+        props.put(ElasticsearchSinkConnectorConfig.CONNECTION_URL_CONFIG, "localhost");
+        props.put(ElasticsearchSinkConnectorConfig.KEY_IGNORE_CONFIG, "true");
+        props.put(ElasticsearchSinkConnectorConfig.DROP_INVALID_MESSAGE_CONFIG, "true");
+
+        elasticsearchSinkTask.start(props, failingClient);
+        elasticsearchSinkTask.put(Collections.singletonList(new SinkRecord("topic", 0, null, null, null, "foo", 0)));
+
+        // test that flush throws an exception
+        assertThrows(ConnectException.class, () -> elasticsearchSinkTask.flush(Collections.emptyMap()));
+        assertEquals(1, apiCallCounter.get());
+
+        // test that the exception is raised also if we try to add another record
+        final ConnectException e = assertThrows(ConnectException.class, () -> elasticsearchSinkTask.put(
+                Collections.singletonList(
+                    new SinkRecord("topic", 0, null, null, null, "bar", 0))
+            )
+        );
+        // the atomic variable isn't changed, the first exception is raised. The connector
+        // instance should die after the first exception since kafka connect will restart it
+        assertEquals(1, apiCallCounter.get());
+    }
+}