The Wine Room by David Nash

Remix Managing Editor Tessa Patrick details exactly what makes The Wine Room quite simply put, the best new spot in town, and why local wine personality David Nash is the only one who could bring it to life.

I’ve been loving the very refreshing overhaul of the Auckland dining scene lately. It’s long felt like we have needed something cool, innovative, and sleek. And there’s none more so than The Wine Room: a venue by the very celebrated David Nash that is as sophisticated as you want to make it. At any time, there is something tasty to enjoy with rare and delicious wines on the gorgeous outdoor terrace, all the way up to an exclusive private dining space where food and wine have never before been paired so beautifully. And at the foundation of this innovative new venue is a very impressive wine cellar, designed to store very valuable collections or even just a couple of nice bottles for the everyday drinker—myraid storage solutions on offer alongside the venue’s signature concierge service. The Wine Room is very clearly hospitality done differently for Auckland, and I’m all for it.

Image by Jono Parker

Dave Nash, please tell me—what makes The Wine Room different to anything Auckland has seen before?
Focus. Everything centres around a great glass of wine, and the entire experience, the expert staff, food matching, water selection, lighting, furniture design... everything has been considered to make that glass of wine taste better. And, the complete experience: you can drop in for a glass after work, organise a grand dinner or event while cellaring 100 to 10,000 bottles of wine below ground in perfect conditions. To have a space that can do it all is new for Auckland.

You’ve had an incredible career in the industry so far—how did this eventuate in The Wine Room? What learnings did you bring from along the way?
The Wine Room really is the culmination of everything I’ve done to date in life and work. I’ve worked for New Zealand’s leading wine brands, and helped create a few. I’ve made wines with good friends, now business partners in Hawke's Bay and Marlborough—I’m part of a gin Distillery in Bluff of all places. All those experiences expose you to different people, different stories, and experiences; they all grew together as an idea in my mind. A few projects I’ve been involved in have had a bigger motivation to do something that changes the behaviour toward the industry. A Seat at the Table, a feature-length documentary I produced about New Zealand wine and where we sat on the world stage, was great for showing New Zealanders and the rest of the world how well regarded we were. And with The Wine Room, we joke that we’re making collecting wine sexy again; we want The Wine Room to lead in elevating our wine culture. Build greater appreciation of the great wines we make here and have access to from around the world. The idea is much bigger than a wine bar.

Personally, what are the qualities you look for in a good vintage?
Weather. Mother Nature controls whether a good vintage is good or not. A winemaker can still make bad wine from a good vintage, but even the best would struggle to make their best wines in a terrible vintage. If you’re spending big or gifting a special bottle, jump on the producer’s website or talk to someone at The Wine Room. They will all have vintage reports that are, for the most part, written by the winemaking team, not the marketing department, so have a good, honest reflection of how that vintage will fare.

What is it about New Zealand that makes our wines and our industry so special, and competitive on an international level?
We have Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc that smells and tastes like no other Sauvignon Blanc on the planet. It’s a pretty amazing thing; think about Champagne for sparking wines, Provence for Rosé, and Marlborough is that for Sauvignon. It’s iconic the world over. There is a danger in being so reliant on one wine or story internationally; as a country, we own Sauvignon, and now we need to build our reputation as a producer of some of the best Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in the world. That might take 25 years. Those in the know internationally can see that Chardonnay is what New Zealand should and will be known for. We can create Chardonnay at the highest level from the Bay of Islands to Central Otago, and every single region or sub-region in New Zealand produces high-quality Chardonnay. Chardonnay also has no ceiling on its value, so in the long term, for a country that is not getting any bigger, it’s a good play to sell less for more. We have some of the most talented winemakers in the world, which helps. However, it’s all about our set of islands where we grow fruit. They are some of the most perfect conditions in the world for growing high-quality grapes to make great wine.

Your wine list is extensive — how do you decide what bottles make the cut?
The line we use is ‘the very best from here and the very best from there’ – there are so many great wines all over the world we want to share an incredibly diverse, super high-quality selection, and none of that is driven by price. A lot of the wines, either myself or one of the team, will have a personal connection with the wines or the winemaker, so we can share their story with conviction; that’s important to us. One of our team, Tori, was just in South America, so we have the wines on the list from the regions she visited. It’ll be ever-evolving!

I’d love to know more about your intentions behind the myriad dining offerings available too. What role does food play at The Wine Room?
Food is just as important as the wine at The Wine Room; Ryan Moore, our executive chef and one of my business partners, is the best chef in New Zealand. Ryan and I first met while drinking some great bottles; he’s got a great palate and a creative mind with food matching, the entire menu was created around the idea of a ‘by the glass menu’. We call it The Wine Bar Menu, but it’s a wine bar menu fit for a bougie hotel in the centre of Paris. Across the culinary programme, we have canapes and snacks that are perfect with a glass or two at the bar or an event, the full menu for lunch and dinner—we also have two set private dining room menus for when you book a private event. A few of our regulars also talk with the team a few days before coming in, and Ryan creates a bespoke menu matched to the wines they want to drink, which is a pretty intimate offering.

I swear I’d never had a food and wine pairing so good until I dined at The Wine Room. last year. How does someone go about creating the perfect food and wine pairing?
Life changing stuff, hey! If you understand even the basics of wine and food matching, your entire life will be enriched by it. Food tastes better, wine tastes better—without it, you are dining out with the volume set to 20%. Wine and food matching can be pretty simple; we take it to a master’s level at The Wine Room to serve tastings that leave you with the experience you had. A few simple things to remember: match to the sauce, not the meat; big tannic reds need fat; ensure the wine is always sweeter than the food, and salt makes everything taste better. Honestly, next time you have a glass of red wine, have a taste—then sprinkle a bit of salt on your tongue and taste it again. Et Voila.

A huge talking point is the storage and concierge service. Can you tell me more about how that aspect of the business helps cater to wine collectors and enthusiasts?
I love how popular it’s been. We have people coming in and signing up for a cellar who have never collected wine before and want to learn and be part of The Wine Room experience. We’ve made it fun and accessible for this reason. It’s pretty cool; you can store your own wines on-site in one of our 400 personal cellars, bring your friends down to the subterranean cellars, select wine and enjoy it up in the bar, no corkage. The concierge is there to help you make some great buying decisions and select wines that will be appreciated as investment pieces or can be enjoyed next time you’re in.

What’s your vision for the future of The Wine Room? What can we expect to see more of?
I think every major city centre in the world should have one! We very much want to expand out of Auckland with our offering and our special way of doing things. In the short term, you can expect much more fun at College Hill. We have (by demand) a ladies-only wine club launching soon, plenty of founding members’ events and plenty of wine and food-orientated events.

Is there anything else Remix readers should know about The Wine Room?
The Champagne flute was developed by the British aristocracy so they could showcase their wealth across a dining room, the fine bead traveling up the flute. They are the worst glasses to drink Champagne out of. A wine glass or a large tulip is best. As Oliver Krug from Krug the Champagne House says: ‘Drinking Champagne from a flute is like going to the Opera with earplugs’. That’s why you’ll never see them at The Wine Room.

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