Medieval Magic and Mead in Broke
The charming township of Broke is an easy 18-minute drive from the bustling Pokolbin area of the Hunter Valley. It is home to a number of unique attractions that offer something a little different to your average cellar door. One of these attractions is the Hunter Valley’s only meadery, which sells honey wine, honey products, and Viking merch!
Martin Jackson is a self-confessed nerd who grew up in Newcastle with a penchant for medieval, Viking fantasy video games. In 2008, he began experimenting with creating the drink that his online avatars enjoyed, and he started home-brewing mead. In a natural confluence of his interests, in 2015, he took up beekeeping as a hobby, building almost 75 hives.
“I became addicted to beekeeping,” said Martin.
“I even taught others beekeeping skills. Over the years I perfected my mead brewing and wondered if I could create a business from it. We began selling mead online in 2020, and it went well, shipping all over Australia. The next step was to have a cellar door, a physical space we could sell from and provide a unique experience for the Hunter Valley.
I was surprised that there were no other meaderies in the region. The closest is Mudgee.”
Martin purchased the property in Broke and opened the cellar door in 2023. His hives were unfortunately eradicated during the varroa outbreak, and he now has just ten hives on the property and has to source honey from other local producers as he uses over 5,000 kilos of honey per year. He is looking forward to the day he can create hands-on beekeeping experiences for visitors to the cellar door.
Mead is the world’s oldest fermented alcoholic drink, pre-dating grape wine and beer by thousands of years and is now enjoying a revival. Made by fermenting honey with water, it can be flavoured with fruits, spices, herbs, or flowers. It often has a rich, honeyed flavour profile with a smooth, warming finish and is versatile enough to be paired with many foods or enjoyed on its own. Depending on the type of honey and additional ingredients used, the taste can vary widely, offering a unique tasting experience.
Martin offers tastings by the paddle with six shot glasses of different meads per paddle. Current mead flavours include Traditional Mead, Lemon and Ginger, Vanilla, Apple, Cherry & Coconut, Maple Syrup, Orange and Grapefruit, Mana Potion (mixed fruits), Stamina Potion (lemon and lime), Regen Potion (ginger and chocolate) and Health Potion (chilli and cherry).
“As we sell out of flavours, I’ll brew new ones or sometimes modify the flavours, such as adding chocolate flavours to a coffee mead to make it a mocha style. There are always new meads to try. We recently renamed and restyled some of the meads into ‘potions’, which has great appeal for those into fantasy video games – they are labelled with Viking runes and have a weathered look to them. They have proved incredibly popular – beyond my wildest dreams.”
Visitors to the cellar door also have the opportunity to try six different flavoured types of honey, including chocolate creamed honey, cinnamon creamed honey, and chilli honey sauce. Martin encourages bookings for the 45-minute tasting experiences so visitors don’t miss hearing all the facts and stories about mead and beekeeping.
“Once I get started, I could talk about this subject all day, and I’ve had so many people tell me that their visit was the highlight of their trip to the Hunter Valley. People are really interested in the history of the product and the art of beekeeping.”
In addition to mead and honey, Martin also has a highly popular range of Viking-styled products, including engraved drinking horns made from the horns of Indian and African cattle, which he sources from India for his designs. There’s even a Viking-themed pizza cutter, which sells out every Christmas!
The cellar door is open from Friday to Sunday every weekend and can be open upon request at other times with a minimum $100 purchase. The set tasting sessions are at 11.30am, 2pm and 4pm. Paddles cost $20 for one, which you can share, or if you purchase more than one, $15 per paddle. Located at 72 Wollombi St, Broke, bookings can be made
at www.honeywinesaustralia.com.au. All products are available to purchase online.