THE BIRTH OF A NEW ERA IN THE WORLD OF FINE BEVERAGES
AURUM - THE FINEST BEVERAGES MADE FROM MANUKA HONEY
DRINK LESS.
DRINK BETTER.
DRINK AURUM.
OUR AWARDS
AURUM - TOP 20 DRINKS OF THE YEAR 2024-25
AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW
CHAMPION BEST IN SHOW
Aurum Rosé de Provenance
ANMC - 2025
CHAMPION BEST IN SHOW
Aurum Sparkling Blanc de Miel
ANMC - 2024
GOLD MEDAL
Sparkling Rosé
ANMC - 2025
GOLD MEDAL
Aurum Bochet
ANMC - 2025
SILVER MEDAL
Aurum Sparkling White
ANMC - 2025
BRONZE MEDAL
Aurum White Gold
ANMC - 2025
BRONZE MEDAL
Aurum Verdelho Pyment
ANMC - 2025
BRONZE MEDAL
Aurum Guava Edition
ANMC - 2025
AURUM — Gold in Latin, a symbol of rarity, purity and excellence.
...
VIN — Wine in French, honouring our winemaker's heritage of fine winemaking.
AURUM
The world's first ultra-premium wine made from medicinal superfood Manuka honey, instead of grapes.
Dry, modern, elegant - refined.
Lower in sugar than a typical glass of wine.
Crafted for lighter enjoyment and premium taste.
Plus...it's better for the environment.
(learn all about our commitment to zero waste, sustainability, and protection of the bees here)
...
Best of all — it was designed with fine dining in mind — and pairs beautifully with food.
Finally - the real wine alternative
sommeliers and connoisseurs
have been waiting for.
AURUM
A better choice - for the bees, for the environment,
for you.
Drink Less.
Drink Better.
Drink AURUM.
Slideshow
OUR AWARD-WINNING BEVERAGES MADE FROM MANUKA HONEY
AURUM Signature Discovery Degustation Mixed Case
$499.00
Aurum Sparkling Blanc de Miel Brut
$150.00
Aurum Sparkling Rosé
$150.00
Aurum White Gold
$80.00
Aurum Rosé de Provenance
$90.00
Aurum Ruby Red - Vintage 2020
$98.00
Aurum Guava Wine - LIMITED EDITION
$49.00
Aurum Verdelho Pyment - Experimental Range
$69.00
Aurum Manuka Spritz Non-Alcoholic Sparkling Botanical Rosé
$16.00
Aurum Premium Manuka Honey 300+ MGO High Strength
$50.00
Aurum Premium Manuka Honey 800+ MGO Ultra High Strength
$110.00
Aurum Premium Manuka Honey 1500+ MGO Supreme Strength
$190.00
AURUM Gift Card
$10.00
Aurum Polycarbonate Picnic Champagne Flute
$15.00
AURUM Zero 0% Alcohol Wellness Trio - AURUM Manuka Spritz + Manuka Honey 300+ MGO
$75.00
Shop By Collection
AURUM Signature Wines
AURUM Signature Wines
Premium Reserve Collection
Premium Reserve Collection
Non-Alcoholic & Manuka Honey
Non-Alcoholic & Manuka Honey
Aurum Mixed Selections & Gift Sets
Aurum Mixed Selections & Gift Sets
AURUM Manuka Honey
AURUM Manuka Honey
AURUM Tastings
AURUM Tastings
Everything you love about premium wine - now with less alcohol, natural ingredients and exceptional taste.
Praised by sommeliers, loved by wine drinkers, and enjoyed by those who thought wine wasn't for them.
AURUM - FAQ
What is AURUM?
Aurum is Australia's most awarded producer of honey based wines - a contemporary interpretation of mead crafted for today's wine drinker.
Rather than producing the sweet, medieval-style meads many people expect, Aurum creates elegant dry wines from rare Australian honeys, native botanicals and traditional winemaking techniques. Every bottle is handcrafted in small batches in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, where the surrounding forests and native blossoms define the character of each vintage.
AURUM wines are made from honey - so are they sweet?
No - and this surprises most first-time tasters.
AURUM is fermented to a fine wine dryness, not a dessert style. The Manuka honey is the base ingredient fermentation transforms, not a sweetener left behind. Expect the structure and finish of a serious white or rosé, with only a whisper of honey on the nose
Is AURUM, mead?
Technically, yes. Stylistically, no.
Traditionally, mead is any alcoholic beverage fermented from honey.
However, AURUM deliberately moves beyond traditional mead by applying modern winemaking techniques to create dry, refined wines.
AURUM exists to show how honey wine, made the right way, can hold its own amongst the most prestigious grape-based wines in the world, not the mead of the Viking era.
Who is behind AURUM?
Louis Costa - winemaker, qualified brewer, and meadmaker - was born and bred in Pauillac, amid the vines of Bordeaux, where his family's winery used vines planted by his grandfather. That same grandfather, a keen apiarist, first taught Louis about bees, pollination, and the honeys of the French countryside -planting the seed for what AURUM would become.
Louis went on to work in some of Bordeaux's most prestigious chateaux, and alongside acclaimed winemaker Virginia Willcock at Vasse Felix in Western Australia, before landing in Byron Bay in 2012 - where he fell in love with the region, the lifestyle, and his future wife, and decided to call it home. Inspired by the richness of the Northern Rivers and the quiet environmental gift of pollination, Louis saw in local honey the chance to create a wine that was both extraordinary and virtually zero-waste - low-impact, regenerative, and deeply of its place.
Why honey?
Because the land in the Northern Rivers, rich and abundant, was never suited to the vine - but it is extraordinarily suited to the bee.
Foraged sustainably, varietal Australian honey carries an aromatic complexity that rivals any grape: floral, mineral, alive with the character of the place it comes from.
Balanced against the fermented complexity of yeast and native botanicals, it becomes something refreshing, sophisticated, and entirely its own.
Does AURUM affect you differently the next day compared to a traditional wine?
That comes down to fermentation.
Alongside ethanol, all fermented drinks produce small amounts of other compounds called congeners - things like fusel alcohols, esters, and aldehydes, formed as a natural by-product of yeast converting sugar into alcohol.
Congeners are also what give a drink its character and aroma, so they're not inherently a flaw - but rough, fast, or poorly managed fermentation tends to produce more of them, and a higher congener load is one of the factors researchers associate with a harder next-day feeling, independent of how much alcohol you actually drank.
AURUM is fermented slowly and precisely, in small batches, with a clean finish. No rushed ferments, no masking off-flavours, no shortcuts that leave excess congeners behind. The result is a wine that's simply cleaner in the glass: fewer of the rough compounds that have nothing to do with the honey and everything to do with how carefully a ferment was handled.
Does Manuka or raw honey make AURUM a "healthier" wine?
Manuka honey has a well-earned reputation in food and wellness circles more broadly, and we're proud to build AURUM from it - but AURUM is a wine, made for pleasure at the table, not a wellness product.
We don't make health or therapeutic claims about it, and we'd rather you enjoy it for what it genuinely is: a carefully fermented, cleanly made wine with real character - not a supplement in a wine bottle.
Are there any added sulphites in AURUM?
Minimal and used with real purpose. AURUM uses sulphites (SO₂) only at bottling, purely as an antioxidant to protect the wine against bottle shock and oxidation during that final, most vulnerable stage of the process.
We're able to keep addition low thanks to the honey itself. Honey carries natural antibacterial properties, which give AURUM a genuine head start on stability - the wine is naturally protected in ways a grape-based wine isn't, meaning we don't need to lean on sulphites at any other stage of fermentation or ageing to keep it sound.
How does AURUM age?
AURUM is built for the cellar, not just the table. Louis, our winemaker, has been ageing his very first creations for more than a decade and what's in those early bottles today confirms what we suspected from the start: this isn't a wine that simply survives time in the cellar, it's transformed by it.
Two things make that possible.
The first is winemaking discipline. The same patient, unhurried approach behind everything AURUM makes. Careful fermentation, extended time on lees, and considered bottle-ageing give the wine the structure it needs to develop rather than fade.
The second is the honey itself. Honey carries natural antibacterial properties, natural acidity, and trace hydrogen peroxide. It's one of the reasons honey itself can remain stable for years, even centuries, in the right conditions and that same quality gives AURUM a genuine head start when it comes to long-term ageing.
Together, this means AURUM ages the way you'd expect from a vintage Champagne cuvée or a fine Burgundy: developing complexity and depth in the bottle over years, not simply holding its ground.
How to cellar it?
Store bottles on their side, away from light, at a steady 16°C. Consistency matters more than the exact number. A stable cellar temperature will always outperform a colder one that fluctuates.
How should AURUM be served?
Glassware matters more than most people expect. The right shape opens up the aromatics and lets the wine develop properly in the glass. We recommend the Riedel Veritas range for AURUM:
- AURUM Sparkling & White Gold - the Veritas Champagne Wine Glass. Its wider, balloon-shaped bowl (rather than a narrow flute) gives the aromatics room to unfold, while a built-in "sparkling point" at the base keeps a fine, steady bead running through the wine.
- AURUM Ruby - the Veritas Pinot Noir Glass. Its shape is built for lighter-bodied reds with bright acidity and soft tannin, drawing out fruit character while keeping the wine's structure balanced in the mouth.
Serving temperature:
- Sparklings & White Gold: 4–6°C
- Ruby: 10–14°C
What pairs well with AURUM?
We're proud to work alongside some of the best chefs and sommeliers in the world in developing AURUM and that collaboration shows in the glass. The range is exceptionally versatile and food-friendly, built to sit comfortably at any course of a meal, and every wine performs beautifully as an aperitif in its own right.
AURUM Sparkling : a natural match for oysters and seafood, fish in a butter sauce, or fruit-based desserts. Equally at home opening a meal as an aperitif.
White Gold: pair it the way you would a fine Chenin Blanc or Chardonnay. It's particularly exceptional alongside sashimi and sushi, where its structure and clarity really shine.
Rosé: built for the grill: think barbecue and summer salads, or anything bright and warm-weather.
Ruby: a serious partner for venison and game, and a standout with blue cheese.
What honey is used, and how is it sourced?
Rare Australian varietal honeys, foraged sustainably by bees across the Northern Rivers, selected by Louis for their aromatic character and purity.
A genuinely low-impact, regenerative approach to winemaking.
Is AURUM environmentally sustainable?
Yes - and it's core to what makes honey-based wine such a compelling alternative in the beverage world. Compared to grape-based wine, spirits, and beer, honey wine sits among the most sustainable styles of beverage production available today.
Here's why:
It supports beekeepers and pollinators. Every bottle of AURUM begins with honey sourced through relationships with local beekeepers, giving them a genuine commercial reason to keep hives thriving across the Northern Rivers.
It promotes biodiversity. Healthy bee populations mean healthy pollination -and healthy pollination supports a far wider diversity of native flora than a single-crop vineyard ever could.
It drives bushland regeneration. Where a vineyard requires land to be cleared and dedicated to a single crop, beekeeping works with existing native bushland rather than against it - increasing pollination activity that helps native vegetation regenerate rather than compete with it.
It's remarkably water-efficient. Production runs at close to a 1:1 water-to-finished-product ratio - about as efficient as beverage production gets, especially set against the water demands of irrigated vineyards or grain-based brewing and distilling.
Put simply: a bottle of AURUM asks far less of the land than a bottle of wine, beer, or spirits typically does, while actively giving something back to the ecosystem it comes from.
Is AURUM gluten-free?
Yes. A honey-based wine, with no grain and no gluten, suitable for celiac / coeliacs.
Is AURUM suitable for vegans and vegetarians?
AURUM is made from honey, and is therefore classified as vegetarian. Protecting the environment and the bees is of paramount importance to us, and we work closely with all of our beekeepers to ensure they follow the most ethical and sustainable practices to care for their bees and the environment. Having a positive impact is why we are so passionate about AURUM and at least 1% of our profits goes towards protecting the bees.
Where do you ship?
Throughout Australia, and to Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and France for our growing export markets. If your region isn't yet listed, register your interest and we'll be in touch..
My order hasn't arrived.
Send us your order number and we'll trace it promptly. Alcohol deliveries occasionally require an adult signature, which may add a day if no one is home.
Slideshow
PROVENANCE & TERROIR
MEDICINAL MANUKA HONEY — THE FOUNDATION OF EVERY AURUM BEVERAGE
AURUM is crafted from the purest medicinal Manuka honey, with zero residue of pesticides and herbicides, sourced from the Northern Rivers of New South Wales near Byron Bay — home to some of the finest quality honey in the world.
Like grapes, our honeys are defined by varietal or blend — each contributing its own character to the flavour, texture, and finish of each beverage.
MEET THE MAKER
CHIEF WINEMAKER AND FOUNDER LOUIS COSTA
French-born Australian winemaker, master brewer and passionate meadmaker Louis Costa brings together the heritage of Bordeaux with the wild beauty of Australia's Northern Rivers.
Driven by a passion for local terroir and innovation, he has been working with honey for over a decade, and has pioneered a world's-first collection of premium dry honey wines, crafted with exceptional Australian honey and native botanical ingredients, for a truly unique drinking experience.
It began as little more than an idea...and a quiet longing to return to winemaking...while I was managing the Stone & Wood Byron Bay brewery.
||
Twelve years of patience and dedicated R&D later, I was finally ready to bring AURUM to market, and introduce a new category of beverage — with the hope that one day it might be enjoyed at some of the finest gastronomic tables in the world.
LOUIS COSTA, WINEMAKER
OUR PROCESS
AURUM wines are made just like a fine wine or French champagne.
Our winemaker begins by selecting the honey varietal for each wine, chosen for its distinct flavour and texture profile.
From there, the finest superfood Manuka is added — and depending on the product (our sparkling rosé, for example) — co-fermented with native Australian botanicals, the purest spring water, and a proprietary French chardonnay yeast strain our winemaker spent twelve years developing.
The wine is rested on lees, racked and follows the same journey as a premium hadncrafted, small-batch wine. Oak and port barrels are used for ageing in our reds and dessert wines.
Our Méthode Traditionnelle (Champenoise) Premium Grand Reserve sparkling cuvées spend over five years ageing, and are made with riddling and disgorgement — just like a Grand Cru champagne.
At bottling, only the most minimal sulphites are added — up to 10 times less than a standard wine, and often less than even a natural wine — purely for shelf stability.
Once opened, AURUM lasts far longer than grape wine, thanks to honey's natural antibacterial and antifungal properties.
A bottle of our still wine can last in the fridge for up to three weeks after opening.
OUR INGREDIENTS
Pure, purposeful, distinctly Aurum.
Every ingredient is selected for flavour, function and finesse.
100% Pure Natural Raw Honey
Sourced from the Northern Rivers and across NSW, our honeys are chosen for their individuality, depth and floral character - from medicinal-grade Manuka and Paperbark to Brush Box, Macadamia, Banksia, Yellow Box, Rainforest, Eucalyptus, Red Gum, Blue Gum, Spotted Gum and Wild Quince.
Mount Tambourine Spring Water
Pure spring water brings clarity, balance and a clean finish.
Our Signature AURUM Yeast
Developed through 12 years of fermenting Aurum, our own proprietary yeast strain developed by our winemaker gives each wine its signature texture, aroma and precision.
Native Botanicals and Plant Extracts
Depending on the product, the addition of co-fermented bush pepper, rosella, strawberry gum leaves, rosemary, medicinal terpenes, organic and wild forest berries and hops bring layered aromatics and a distinctly modern Australian edge.
What Makes It Different
Aurum combines regional honey diversity, native botanicals and house fermentation to create a refined and innovative take on premium honey wine.
JOURNAL
Four Ingredients. Nothing Else.
The case for restraint.
