From skynews.com.au
An ancient beverage guzzled by the Vikings more than 1,000 years ago has been brought to life in a variety of flavours by a humble South Australian McLaren Vale winemaker
Mark Maxwell thanks drunken Vikings for setting his family winery in South Australia on the road to prosperity.
The Vikings couldn’t get enough of their “nectar of the gods”, the honey wine they quaffed before heading into battle.
It wasn’t wine at all, of course, but the alcoholic fermented honey drink known as mead.
Intrigued by the stories he read about the Viking's love of mead, Mark’s father Ken Maxwell, a McLaren Vale farmer, began experimenting with different honeys and different yeasts to produce his own.
He sold his first bottle in 1966. The profits helped underpin the Maxwells' move into wine grape production.
Mark Maxwell expanded the business in 1987 buying vineyards and building a winery, cellar door and an award-winning restaurant in cream-coloured sandstone blocks.
He designed it with large windows to capture the views.
“Making and selling natural mead in four varieties is still an integral part of our business,” Mr Maxwell, 73, said.
“Having goblets of mead is Game of Thrones stuff. No wonder the Vikings liked it.”
He makes the traditional honey mead with golden hues and with sweet floral beeswax and nutty and marmalade characters.
He added to his mead repertoire by creating a mulled mead with cinnamon and cloves.
“We then evolved that one into another mead where we added brandy and more spices and put it into oak barrels to make a liqueur mead with 20 per cent alcohol,” Mr Maxwell said.
“And we have just released a fourth mead containing ginger from Buderim in Queensland. We fermented that with honey to make a sparking mead in a can.
"It’s an easy summer drink with five per cent alcohol.”
Maxwell Wines benefit from a cooling maritime influence with some vineyards just 15km from the sea.
Maxwell Lime Cave Cabernet Sauvignon 2023 has aromas of red currant and cassis with flashes of “cigar box” and herbal aromatics.
There is more cassis on the palate enlivened with cedar and spice.
The fruit was harvested from a vineyard that sits atop limestone cave dug in 1916 to grow mushrooms.
Maxwell Four Roads Grenache has spicy raspberry and floral aromas with hints of pomegranate.
It has vibrant red fruit flavours with raspberry and cherry and savoury undertones.
There are rich blackberry and dark cherry fruit flavours in Maxwell Silver Hammer Shiraz 2023, an attractive and complex wine with a gentle natural acidity.
Maxwell Wines offers a decent set of whites. I especially enjoyed tasting the Maxwell Estate Fiano 2025 a creamy, textural wine with waxy apple flavours with hints of honey and pears
Travellers' tips
Maxwell Winery at 19 Olivers Rd, McLaren Vale, is 39km south of Adelaide.
Under the guidance of chef Fabian Lehmann, Maxwell Restaurant was last year named South Australian restaurant of the year.
He offers a tasting menu with up to 14 courses including oysters and caviar, chicken, squid, marron, wagyu beef and venison.
There is a less formal tapas-style snacks menu in the winery tasting room.
The winery also offers a 30-minute helicopter tour of McLaren Vale across the vineyards with spectacular views of the cliffs, the ocean and the white sandy beaches.
The deal includes lunch.
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