We'll be honest. When we first told sommeliers they were tasting a wine made from honey - not a single grape in sight - we got the look. You know the one. The politely sceptical tilt of the head. The slight narrowing of the eyes. The "sure, mate" energy radiating across the tasting table.
Then they tasted it.
Then they tasted it again.
Then someone asked if we'd snuck in a Blanc de Blancs.
We hadn't. What they were drinking was AURUM - Australia's award-winning Modern Honey Wine, handcrafted in the Northern Rivers from rare Australian Manuka honey and native botanicals. No grapes.
And yeah, we're pretty proud of that.
The Awards Are In. The Wine World Has a New Challenger.
Let's get into it. Because the trophy cabinet is starting to need an extension.
Best in Show - Champion Mead, Australian Nationals. Honestly, this one caught us off guard a little. You enter these competitions hoping to hold your own, and walking away with Best in Show - against entries from across the country - was a moment that meant everything to our small team in the hinterland.
Top 20 Drinks of 2024 - Australian Financial Review. Alongside Burgundy legends, celebrated Australian estates, and cult-status bottles that have been doing this for decades. AURUM sat right there among them. Made from honey. By a French meadmaker who once worked the vines of Bordeaux and thought: there's something even better here.
Rated 5/5 at our weekly cellar door, where sommeliers, food lovers, chefs, and people who've never heard of mead pull up a chair on a Saturday morning at Newrybar Hall and leave converting their friends.
The message is clear: AURUM Honey Wine is not a novelty. It's the real deal - and the industry is paying attention.
Why Honey Wine Is the Smarter Choice at the Table
Here's a question nobody in the wine world has been asking loudly enough: what are we actually putting in our glass?
Conventional wine comes with sulphites, preservatives, and increasingly - additives most drinkers don't know are there. Fining agents. Colour enhancers. Tannin powders. Acid adjusters. The list of things a winemaker can legally add to a bottle of wine without disclosing it on the label is genuinely surprising.
AURUM is different by design.
Honey. Water. Native botanicals. Yeast. That's the list. No added sugar. No synthetic additives of any kind. Just pure Australian Manuka honey - sourced from seven local beekeepers across the Northern Rivers - fermented dry with the precision of a classically trained winemaker who spent years at the best estates in Bordeaux before landing in Byron Bay and deciding to do something the world had never seen.
And here's where it gets interesting for anyone paying attention to what they eat and drink:
Manuka honey is one of the most functional foods on earth. Its methylglyoxal (MGO) content gives it genuine antibacterial properties. It carries antioxidants that support cellular health. It has natural prebiotic qualities that support gut bacteria. It is anti-inflammatory in ways that refined sugar - and frankly, most of what's in a standard glass of wine - absolutely is not.
When you ferment Manuka honey dry, you're not just making a delicious drink. You're working with an ingredient that has been revered for its health properties for thousands of years and giving it an entirely new expression.
Less sugar than wine. No sulphite headache. No preservative hangover. Just a clean, complex, dry fermented beverage that happens to be extraordinary.
If wine is your benchmark (and for most of us it is) AURUM doesn't just meet it. It reframes it.
The Range: A Wine List Made Entirely from Honey
Here's what makes AURUM genuinely remarkable: it's not one product. It's a full range of premium honey wines — still, sparkling, vintage, and rosé — each one an expression of a different style, a different mood, a different table.
AURUM Sparkling White — Blanc de Miel This is the show-stopper. A result is a fine-bubbled, pale straw Australian honey sparkling wine with the elegance of a Blanc de Blancs and a finish that doesn't quit. This is the one that fools the sommeliers. Serve it at anything you'd crack a bottle of Champagne for. Watch the conversation start.
AURUM Sparkling Rosé The pale blush sparkling rosé that launched the Manuka Spritz and turned heads at every event we've taken it to. Dry, effervescent, and built around native rosella botanicals that give it a floral complexity no grape-based rosé can replicate.
AURUM White Gold A dry still honey wine with the weight and texture of a quality Chardonnay or Viognier — complex, mineral, and food-friendly. If you're pairing, this is the one for delicate dishes, fresh seafood, and anything that would normally call for a fine white Burgundy.
AURUM Rosé de Provenance — Our signature off-dry blush rosé. Floral aromatics, soft fruit, and just enough sweetness to make it an absolute joy with food that has a little spice, a little heat, or a little complexity. Think Thai, Vietnamese, and dishes where your Pinot Gris would usually earn its keep.
AURUM Ruby This is where things get interesting. A red honey wine made with organic red berries — think Gamay, think Pinot Noir, but made from honey and fruit instead of grapes. Chill it slightly. Serve it with food. Try not to be surprised by how much it works. This is the one that converts the sceptics who came in saying "red mead? no thanks" and left asking when the next vintage drops.
AURUM Dessert Mead Aged, rich, complex, and absolutely stunning alongside a cheese board. If you're reaching for a Sauternes or a late-harvest Riesling for dessert, give this one a shot first.
How to Pair AURUM Honey Wines with Food
This is the part we genuinely love. Because AURUM's flavour profile — floral, mineral, dry, complex — opens up food pairing possibilities that conventional wine can't always reach.
AURUM Sparkling White with: Oysters. Fresh prawns. Sashimi. Anything dressed with yuzu or lemon. Champagne canapés at a wedding. A lazy Sunday morning with smoked salmon and crème fraîche on sourdough.
AURUM Sparkling Rosé with: Scallops. Kingfish crudo. Charcuterie boards. Pulled pork sliders. A cheese platter that has something soft and something funky on it. An afternoon in the sun with people you like.
AURUM White Still with: Grilled snapper. Spaghetti vongole. Risotto bianco. Soft cheese. Anything dressed with good olive oil and herbs. The kind of dinner that takes two hours and nobody minds.
AURUM Rosé Gold with: Spiced duck. Red Thai curry. Vietnamese pork salad. Anything with galangal, lemongrass, or lime leaf. Soft rind cheeses. The bottle you open when you're not sure what you're cooking yet but you know it's going to be good.
AURUM Red Melomel with: Venison. Slow-braised duck. Blue cheese. Dark chocolate. The kind of dish that deserves something with a bit of depth and character in the glass.
AURUM Dessert Mead with: Blue cheese. Dark chocolate. Poached pears. Fig and walnut tart. The end of a great dinner when nobody wants to leave.
The Northern Rivers in a Bottle
There's something about this part of the world that makes the drink taste different. We believe it. Cape Byron Distillery believes it. Stone & Wood believes it. The Northern Rivers has a way of getting into the things made here.
AURUM's meadmaker, Louis Costa, trained in Bordeaux, worked in Western Australia, and landed in the hinterland of Byron Bay in 2012. What he found here — the Manuka honey, the native botanicals, the biodiversity of the Northern Rivers landscape — became the foundation for something the wine world hadn't seen before.
He works with seven local beekeepers. He tastes every batch of honey. He ferments in small batches, matures with minimal intervention, and bottles with the kind of precision that comes from decades of training in some of the most respected cellars on earth.
Every bottle of AURUM is an expression of this place. The terroir of the Northern Rivers — the only fine wine of terroir made from honey in this country — captured in glass.
That's worth raising a glass to.
AURUM & The Sober-Curious Table
One more thing — and it matters more than it might have a few years ago.
Not everyone at the table drinks alcohol. That number is growing, and it's growing fast. Dry July. Dry January. The mindful drinking movement. Athletes. Pregnant guests. People who simply feel better when they don't drink.
The AURUM Manuka Spritz — our non-alcoholic botanical sparkling rosé — means nobody at your table has to settle for sparkling water while the rest of you clink glasses. It's made with the same honey, the same botanicals, the same craft. It just doesn't ferment to alcohol.
It is a genuinely premium non-alcoholic wine alternative — and it belongs on any table where the food deserves something better than fizzy grape juice.
Come Find Us
The full AURUM range is available at aurum.vin— shipping across Australia.
If you're in the Northern Rivers, come to the cellar door at Newrybar Hall, every Saturday from 10am–4pm. Six award-winning wines, a tasting flight, and canapés curated by Michelin-starred chef Anthony Hamon. Drop in or book a table for up to 30 people.
We'd love to pour you something that changes your mind about what wine can be.
AURUM Honey Wines Northern Rivers, NSW