Since 1979, the Maxwell family, with its 16 acre estate, have built a solid reputation for producing handmade wines so it makes sense then that the family’s ethos is: “ Life’s too short to drink bad wine”. There has always been a love of wine and vine in the Maxwell lineage from the time Mark Maxwell’s Great, Great Grandfather, William Maxwell, a noted Scottish sculptor, settled in Adelaide, Australia in 1878 and grew very acceptable reds in the grounds of the mock castle he built. Maxwell’s estate vineyards are some of the most favourably positioned in the McLaren Vale district. Situated on solid limestone, and in such proximity to the moderating effects of the Gulf of St Vincent, the conditions in the vineyards are ideal and somewhat blessed for producing small quantities of intensely flavoured grapes. The oldest vines on the property were planted in 1953, known within the Winery as the “Max flat block”, these Shiraz vines always produce some of the best fruit on the estate, providing the base for the Ellen Street Shiraz.