Arriving in the tasting room, I discovered the Open sign would only be there until the limited stocks on hand went out the door, and after trying the two wines on offer I was only too happy to do my bit by taking a 1999 Cabernets off their hands.
I'm still not in the habit of buying $60 bottles of wine, but on the occasions when I have I've never experienced anything like what followed this particular decision to purchase.
An enquiry regarding the destination of the bottle and the means by which it would get there produced answers of Bowen, north Queensland and car, which had the cellar door attendant off to find a styrofoam box, followed by detailed instructions about due care and attention.
And I must admit that the decision to buy the wine fridge after our Melbourne Cup windfall in 2006 was substantially prompted by the need for safe storage of the contents of the container we'd developed a habit of calling Max.
Subsequent research in Halliday delivered a suggested drink by date of 2010, which meant that the bottle was pencilled in for Hughesy's birthday celebrations that year, and, in any case Max had spent a while in less than ideal cellaring conditions, so I wasn’t keen on pushing the bottle age envelope. Since that occasion has now passed, so has the bottle.
From the start of the winery operation in 1963 it seems that things have continued more or less as Max Lake intended despite changing management and winemaker in early 2000. It's still a small operation (around 4,500 cases, three-quarters of them red) emphasizing quality fruit from well-established low cropping vines and "attention to detail from vineyard to bottle" (their words, not mine).
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