Cheers to fun and friendship
Food and wine are inextricably linked for winemaker Mark Maxwell, who gets his hands dirty in the kitchen for a dinner with some special friends.
Out in the vineyard, Mark Maxwell walks among the harvested vines, green leaves still lingering on a few rows of grenache in the dying days of autumn. The Maxwell Wines founder is taking SALIFE on a wander through his McLaren Vale property, momentarily downing his kitchen utensils.
Tonight, Mark is hosting a dinner party with a couple of members of his social tennis group and their partners. But first, we tour the land that Mark bought back in 1980, a year after he started Maxwell Wines with his father Ken.
Over the years, Mark purchased more and more parcels of neighbouring land, growing his property to more than 100 acres, which is now home to vines with numerous grape varieties, a luxurious cellar door and restaurant, and a spectacular limestone cave. Mark is McLaren Vale born and bred and during his childhood years he’d earn pocket money in school holidays by picking grapes, pruning and taking on any other tasks he could find at the wineries.
His father had what Mark describes as a shed winery, but they decided to go bigger and open Maxwell together in 1979.
Years earlier, Ken had begun making mead and bottled it commercially for the first time in 1966 – something Mark still makes to this day.
Mark remembers Ken and his mother, Margaret, as being warm and inviting to anyone who came into their cellar door.
“They were charming and gracious hosts and they always gave customers a taste of the mead,” Mark says.
Mark and Ken toiled away in the early years, and 1995 kicked off a successful period, which allowed Mark the funds to take the plunge and build the winery that stands today.
In every beam and brick, there are tales of history, from the Oregon timber repurposed from the old Port Adelaide woolshed, to the hemlock ceiling that was once part of a Latvian ship. Mark’s tendency to repurpose can also be spotted in his home. You can see it in the bricks surrounding the home, rescued from a demolished 1890s church in Norwood.
He’s even created light features above the outdoor dining areas made from old vine trunks.
Instead of ripping out the old kitchen’s indoor woodfire, he opened up the wall behind it and created a fire for the outdoor dining space and closed it off from the inside.
“I think from an early age, it started with being from a relatively poor upbringing,” Mark says. “My immediate level of comfort was in second-hand clothes, so I first thought second-hand is cheaper, but it’s solid, better built and has more character to it.
“I started to see the benefit of old timber versus new timber and old brick versus new brick.”
An unusual touch in the kitchen is a sink on the island bench, which serves a very practical purpose at get-togethers of his tennis group.
“It’s there because of tennis,” he explains. “Every Tuesday night, there are seven or eight or 10 fully grown, loud men (playing tennis and drinking wine), and when they don’t like a wine, they tip it out and go on to the next one.”
It’s not rare for 20 or 30 bottles to be open on the bench, floodlights illuminating the tennis court outside. This group has been meeting each week for 40 years, initially to drink vintage port, smoke cigars and play tennis, and they’ve now given up on the cigars and sometimes the tennis, but never the wine.
“It’s about the camaraderie; everyone comes around and you get the chance to catch up,” Mark says.
“We talk about the wine we’re drinking, but also catch up on what’s going on in the district.”
On any given Tuesday, you’ll find winemakers Scott Collett from Woodstock, Chester Osborn from d’Arenberg, Ben Riggs from Mr Riggs and Geoff Hardy from K1, along with mates Kerry Reeks, who has owned pubs and worked in mining, and Tim Cawte, who owns an online sports strapping supplier.
"I started to see the benefit of old timber versus new timber and old brick versus new brick"
Here tonight from the tennis group is Chester, with partner Kath Tidemann, and Tim, with partner Kirsty Wright. Rounding out the guest list tonight is Mark’s son Jeremy with his wife Andréa, along with Mark’s partner Carol Asher, whom he was set up with about a year ago on a blind date at a local pub.
In the spacious kitchen of Mark’s extended and renovated 1946 home, he seems very comfortable with knife in hand, ingredients scattered around the bench. Among a couple of Yotam Ottolenghi cookbooks is a collection of well-worn printed recipes that Mark has referenced over the years, kept in a folder. To Mark, the pursuit of good food is very serious.
One of the pages in that much-loved folder is a faxed copy with the words ‘Seafood chowder from Murphy Browne’s’ scrawled across the top. On a trip to Ireland, Mark decided to order seafood chowder from every restaurant he went to for dinner.
“By the time I left, I had had eight or nine of them, but one stood out as being better than the rest,” Mark says. “I waited until it was about 4am here – 6pm there – and I knew the chef would be walking in for the dinner service.
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“I rang her and asked for the recipe. I’ve played with it and now I use it all the time.”
It’s not on tonight’s menu, but there are plenty of other special bites. To start, there are nibbles, including salt-aged black olives from trees on the property. There’s also an impressive steam bun topped with salmon, served with Maxwell 2017 Tasmania Vintage Sparkling from their Pipers River vineyard.
Next, it’s chilli mussels with a tomato base, cooked in Maxwell Sparkling Mead, served with Maxwell 2024 Grenache Blanc. And the star of the menu is the giant grilled tomahawk dry aged beef with roast pumpkin – from Tim’s property – on a Greek yoghurt and horseradish puree.
This dish is a nod to Ken, who Mark says had an amazing recipe for horseradish. “It was so spicy that someone gave him a 1940s WWII gas mask because when he was making it, you’d walk into his house and you couldn’t breathe. So, this recipe reminds me of my father.”
To go with the main, Mark has also made hasselback celeriac drizzled with tahini, and honey soy broccolini with cashews and orange zest.
Main is served with Maxwell Nero d’Avola, and a host of other drops, and then to finish, it’s a cheese platter with Section 28 cheeses and a Maxwell shiraz. Of course, the kitchen island quickly fills up with bottles from the guests and an impromptu tasting ensues.
The tennis is not forgotten – Chester takes a racquet in one hand, a glass of white in the other and goes for a hit, complete with a burgundy velvet jacket covered almost completely in badges and pins.
Jeremy has donned an apron from the winery’s kitchen and chars the tomahawk with feisty flames, while Mark prepares the mussels and vegetables.
It’s clear through Mark’s investment in the dining experience at the winery, headed by chef Fabian Lehmann, that he sees food as an integral part of the wine experience.
His own passion for cooking began when his two boys were young, helping to cook their meals, and for the past decade, he’s taken it quite seriously. Son Jeremy, now general manager at Maxwell, met his wife Andréa – a talented winemaker in her own right – in her home country of South Africa, while he was working a vintage there in 2011.
As Andréa and Tim join Chester on the court, Chester’s partner Kath watches on. The pair dated in their early 20s, before Kath moved overseas and interstate to work in advertising. Then in 2003, Kath was back living in South Australia when she and Chester crossed paths again and they’ve been together ever since. Kath helps out on the marketing side, especially on overseas trips, and they’re just about to launch a line of men’s shirts, Beakus Twisterus – as colourful as you’d expect from Chester.
Tim and Kirsty have a similar story – dating early on in life before losing contact for 40 years and rekindling the romance. Tim returns inside after his hit, singing the praises of groups like this. Tim might only speak with a couple of people a week during work hours, so this group is a great opportunity to have a chat.
“I think every group of men should do something like this; it’s something you really value.”
This article first appeared in the July 2025 issue of SALIFE magazine.
