Maxwell Wines x Freyja: A Meeting of Time, Place and Patience
McLaren Vale’s Maxwell Wines is stepping out of the limestone hills and into Melbourne this October for a dinner unlike any other. For one night only, the acclaimed winery will join forces with Collins Street’s Nordic-inspired Freyja, presenting a menu that puts patience, craft and seasonality at its centre.
The collaboration brings together a formidable team of chefs. Freyja’s executive chef Jae Bang, formerly of Michelin-starred Re-Naa in Norway, partners with international fine-dining talent Fabian Lehmann and Freyja’s head chef Aaron Caccia. Together, they’ve designed a four-course menu layered with Nordic technique and McLaren Vale terroir, each course paired with wines and meads from Maxwell.
Founded in 1979 and carved into limestone, Maxwell Wines has spent decades refining its craft. While best known for terroir-driven shiraz and grenache, the winery also holds a unique claim: it’s one of the country’s leading producers of mead, with some barrels aged for years before release. Last year Gourmet Traveller named Maxwell South Australia’s Restaurant of the Year, solidifying its reputation for both wine and food.
For this Melbourne appearance, diners can expect a progression of dishes that showcase patience as an ingredient in its own right. Snacks include an edible oyster shell filled with oyster mousse, oyster emulsion and caviar, while fermented buckwheat croustade topped with kombu-cured hiramasa kingfish nods to Freyja’s love of fermentation. Later courses move into a smoked rainbow trout with dashi beurre blanc and a Wagyu short rib lacquered with beetroot, red currant and sake. A mead-matched dessert of roasted banana, banana miso fudge and white chocolate closes the night.
Jeremy Maxwell describes the event as “a chance to share the spirit of McLaren Vale with Melbourne, alongside chefs who value craft, patience and provenance.” It’s more than a dinner — it’s a meeting of philosophies, two approaches to food and wine that both hinge on time.
For Melbourne diners, the opportunity is rare. The one-off event will take place on Thursday 2 October at Freyja inside the heritage-listed Olderfleet building on Collins Street. Tickets are $179 per person, including snacks, four courses and paired wines.
Bookings are now open, and with only limited seats available, this dinner promises to be one of spring’s most talked-about tables.
McLaren Vale’s Maxwell Wines is stepping out of the limestone hills and into Melbourne this October for a dinner unlike any other. For one night only, the acclaimed winery will join forces with Collins Street’s Nordic-inspired Freyja, presenting a menu that puts patience, craft and seasonality at its centre.
