AURUM - Frequently Asked Questions
GENERAL 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.
Is 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.