Saintly passion

The divine inspiration of UNO columnist Jess Easton, Saint Wine Bar pairs an impressive wine selection with delicious share plates for a match made in heaven.

words HAYLEY BARNETT | photos ILK PHOTOGRAPHY

As we step into the moody, candlelit lounge, a warm fireplace crackling, it’s clear something special is going on here at Saint Wine Bar. And when we meet sommelier Charles, who smiles and immediately fills our glasses with some Vilaura Bdb Methode Traditionelle, we can see we’re in safe hands. It’s even emblazoned across the back of the staff uniform: ‘In Charles We Trust’.

Owner Jess Easton, known to UNO readers as our wine columnist, has fulfilled a lifelong dream with Saint, located along The Strand in Tauranga. By lifelong she means it. Jess became a wine aficionado at a very young age. “My dad used to let me try his wine as a kid,” she admits. “We had one of those wine cellars where you’d lift up the door and walk down these dark stairs. One of my first memories of wine is a Penfolds Grange.”

When she was old enough, she would hire a bus every birthday and take her friends out to the wineries surrounding Melbourne, her home town. “But I still didn’t fully appreciate it until I was in my thirties,” she adds. “I’m right now staring at 200 bottles sitting in my house. It’s got out of hand.”

These days, Jess moonlights as a lawyer and somehow manages to run Kitchen Takeover − the Bay’s popular pop-up foodie experience − at the same time. She says she’s very lucky to have met Charles Leong, and chef Dan Lockhart, who together have become the glue that holds every piece of Saint together.

“I wanted to create an entire engaging experience and Charles just nails that,” says Jess. “When we met I could tell he understood what I wanted to achieve in that space. It was the same with Dan.”

What she’s created with Charles and Dan is a bar that specialises in fine wines from around New Zealand and offers tantalising share plates to match.

“I travel to Napier and Gisborne a lot for work and often go out for a glass of wine. There are these little bars where you can have a good wine without feeling like you need to order a three-course meal. That’s where the idea came from. I just wanted to make wine accessible.”

After we learn about a few new wine varietals from Charles, and overdo it on the share plates, we come to the conclusion that a wine bar is exactly what Tauranga needs. With dishes like saku tuna, blue swimmer crab crisps, pulled beef croquettes and rib eye steak, you can make a night of it, but as diners come and go, we realise this is a place that has somehow pulled off the casual dining/bar experience in an elegant setting. Here at Saint, you can make it whatever you want.

As the space is also an event venue, Jess encourages diners to check their socials to find out which days they are open to the public.

“Now it’s just about getting people into the habit of checking our pages. So far it’s working. People are loving it!”

Off the beaten path

 In the back blocks of Hawke’s Bay, surrounded by native plants and sculptures, Tony Prichard of de la terre is turning winemaking into an art form.

words Jess Easton  |  photos Jamie Troughton/Dscribe Media

Tony nurtures every part of the winemaking process with passion and patience, infusing each vintage that de la terre produces with a unique story.

You won't find Tony Prichard's wines on a supermarket shelf. You won't find his wines before judging panels either, hunting medals or looking for accolades.

Some of his wines, you won't even find on the list at his cellar door at de la terre, the Hawke's Bay winery he runs with wife Kaye and self-appointed winery dog and welcoming committee Gracie.

What you will find, however, when you finally track down one of his wines, is utter deliciousness.

With nearly 40 years in the winemaking business, including stints at Montana and Church Road, he's so adept and confident in crafting intricate and mouth-watering flavours out of grapes that he's more than happy to let his wines do the talking.

And talk they do. His Viognier will verbalise, the Aneis with enunciate and he’ll get his Chardonnays whispering in tongues of flint and zest. Tony’s Tannat, meanwhile, will sit you down by the fireplace, all gravel and gravitas, and patiently explain why there's more than one great red varietal grown in New Zealand.

It's almost like Tony decided a long time ago that making mediocre Merlots and perfumed Pinot Gris, like so many of his contemporaries, just wasn't that much of a challenge and he was going to test his mettle on exotic wines outside the box. Even more mainstream wines – like his mind-blowing EVB Chardonnay – are so finely crafted and deliberate that they couldn't possibly be confused for anything else but a de la terre.

Sampling the hand-labelled, hand-numbered wines at the cellar door.

Passionate and humble, a patient and engaged teacher, Tony likes to challenge established norms and turn popular opinion on its head. While others chase sales or even perfection, he's after emotion. He encourages each vintage he makes to tell a story about the soil it grew in, the sun that warmed it and the hands that formed it. And each vintage he strives for refinement at every stage of the winemaking process. 

This is winemaking as an art form. Hand-picked and handmade, Tony and Kaye even hand-label and number every bottle that comes out of their winery. “It shows that someone cares,” he explains.

Elsewhere on the premises, Kaye has turned her long food technology background into a thriving café. She laments, with a laugh, that Tony’s other passion – bending and welding steel into wild and spectacular sculptures of swooping eagles and giant dragonflies – is turning the place into a theme park.

If the theme is interestingly delicious, however – it seems like the couple have got it nailed.  

Jess Easton is a Tauranga-based lawyer and director and owner of St Amand events venue and Kitchen Takeover.