Where a beekeeper's craft became a winemaker's obsession.
A vintage in Bordeaux. A harvest at Vasse Felix. A return home.
I trained in Bordeaux before I understood why. It took a vintage at Vasse Felix, in Margaret River, to understand what I was actually chasing — not a region, but a discipline: the patience to let a single material speak for itself. In 2012 I came home to the Byron Bay hinterland and found that material waiting in my grandfather's hives. He had spent a lifetime as an apiarist in the Northern Rivers, and I had spent mine learning how to turn fruit into something worth ageing. AURUM is what happens when those two educations meet.
What we won't compromise on.
One region.
Northern Rivers Manuka, only. AURUM does not source honey from anywhere else.
A yeast of our own.
Bred over years specifically for Manuka honey fermentation — a strain we are proud of.
Seven beekeepers, not a supply chain.
We know every hive our honey comes from, and the person who tends it.
Time is not optional.
Reserve cuvées age in years, not months. Cuvée 800 spent five before it was ready to be disgorged.
Hive to bottle.
Four stages, none of them shortened. What comes out the other end is closer to a reserve wine than anything called a mead has any right to be.
Honey Sourcing
Raw Manuka honey drawn from seven Northern Rivers apiaries, rated above 800+ MGO for our reserve program.
Fermentation
Fermented slowly using a proprietary yeast strain developed specifically for Manuka honey, not adapted from grape must.
Reserve Ageing
Our longest cuvées rest for five years before they're judged ready — time we don't compress for anyone.
Hand-Disgorgement
Cuvée 800 was hand-disgorged in May 2026, then individually numbered, bottle by bottle.
Bee-to-blossom.
Northern Rivers Manuka doesn't behave like any honey we could have sourced elsewhere. The microclimate — humid, subtropical, close to the coast — gives the blossom a density that carries all the way through fermentation. It's the reason AURUM couldn't have been made anywhere else.
We work with seven local beekeepers rather than a commercial supplier, which means slower volume and a harvest that varies year to year — a trade we make deliberately, the same way a winemaker accepts a vintage they can't control.
of every bottle sold goes back to supporting Northern Rivers bee populations — a standing commitment, not a campaign.
Judged as wine, not as novelty.
"[Testimonial quote to be supplied by Carlos Simoé Santos.]"Carlos Simoé Santos Master Sommelier
"[Testimonial quote to be supplied by Anthony Hamon.]"Anthony Hamon Chef, Newrybar Hall