KEY POINTS:
In his Remuera kitchen, Paul Holmes is demonstrating a few moves from his recent appearance on Dancing with the Stars. Minus his swanky red jacket, the consummate showman still gives a decent rendition of a paso doble, snapping his feet in perfect rhythm.
For a brief moment, Holmes
is in the bull ring, waving his make-believe matador's cape.
"There's all this language associated with dancing," he says side-stepping towards the fireplace. "Rebecca [Nicholson, his partner on Dancing With the Stars] would say that's a side, close, side and I'd have to get in line."
It's a pity, says the reborn dance enthusiast, that our youth don't have the opportunity to embrace traditional dance culture. "We live in an age of vulgarity," he sighs.
After mastering the language of dance, Holmes is now learning the language of artisan food producers.
New Zealand's high-profile broadcaster and writer is launching a range of olive oils, pressed from fruit grown on his Hawkes Bay property, Mana Lodge.
There's nothing vulgar about his city home in Remuera. The kitchen overlooks a perfectly manicured, Italian-themed garden patio.
Behind the counter of his expansive all-white breakfast bar, Holmes lines up dipping bowls filled with his newly produced extra-virgin olive oil.
"Olive oil is the most gorgeous thing to eat on its own," he says, encouraging me to smell the flavours before dunking the bread.
Holmes looks on expectantly as I dip, taste and attempt to savour. Hmm, yes, it's very good.
"They are very different aren't they? Leccino is rich and golden, with a rounded taste. Frantoio is green, crisp and peppery."
Ever the performer, Holmes can't resist a boast. "In a blind testing in Hawkes Bay last year, Mana Lodge oil earned gold and silver."
He should also be praised for restoring Hawkes Bay's well-known Mana Lodge.
Established in the 1930s as a horse stud out of the great Te Mahunga Run, its original owner Para Holden used a win on the horses to develop a spectacular terraced lawn, retained by bricks from the old Te Mahunga homestead destroyed in the 1931 earthquake.
Holmes and his contractors have spent years restoring the house and its gardens. In 2000, Holmes and Mana Lodge's farm manager Nigel Mackintosh planted nearly 4000 olive trees on the 60ha property.
"I've no idea why I started growing olives, but they're just an ancient tree and they fit in beautifully with the landscape."
Holmes says Mackintosh invests supreme amounts of time and effort to grow healthy trees that will produce well-balanced oil.
"He treats them like his babies."
The first pressing of Paul Holmes olive oil from Mana Lodge's 3700 trees has produced nearly 3000 bottles, most of which will be distributed to speciality delis in New Zealand. The rest will go overseas.
It's not a huge money-spinner but Holmes, who was born in Hawkes Bay, hopes he can expand production by including olive oil from other boutique olive oil producers.
So does he see himself as New Zealand's version of Hollywood's Paul Newman - whose Newman's Own range includes salad dressings and pasta sauces.
"I'm serious about marketing the Holmes brand, and it will extend to include a range of gourmet foods. I want the farm to be commercially successful."
* Paul Holmes olive oil is available from Zarbo, Essential Deli, Dida's and Jones the Grocer.
