Auckland Restaurant Review: The College Hill Wine Room Serves Up Fine Wine And Rich Food

THE COLLEGE HILL WINE ROOM

Cuisine: Wine bar

Address: 2/43 College Hill, Freemans Bay, Auckland 1011

Drinks: Fully licensed

Reservations: Accepted

Contact: Thewineroom.co.nz

From the menu: Oysters $7ea; gilda $8ea; Comte cheese tart $24; wagyu beef tartare $27; white asparagus $26

Rating: 17/20

Score: 0-7 Steer clear. 8-12 Disappointing, give it a miss. 13-15 Good, give it a go. 16-18 Great, plan a visit. 19-20 Outstanding, don’t delay.

And yes, The College Hill Wine Room by David Nash is mostly about the drinks so it’s no surprise they have a sommelier and WSET-trained servers on hand. But even so, there is a level of warmth and expertise here that goes well beyond expectations. It’s the sort of place you can say, “We thought we might try the bubbles from Kumeū, what do you think?” and your waiter replies, “It’s a great choice, but have you tried the Vilaura? It’s not listed by the glass but we have a bottle open – perhaps you’d like a taste before you make a decision?”

Thanks, I would like a taste. The Vilaura won the supreme prize at the recent National Wine Awards – it’s currently underpriced and hard to find – and we each settled in with a glass. All wines here are served in the same vessel – a special shape designed by UK wine writer Jancis Robinson to work with any variety. You might think such a glass would struggle the most with Methode, a style usually sipped from a narrow flute, but our server told us that most wine experts prefer the bowl shape anyway, as it helps you experience more of the nose. Our server’s name was Tori, by the way.

“My name is Tori, by the way,” she said to my wife. “I’m a Victoria like you, but I go by Tori so that people don’t call me ‘Vicky’.”

“OH MY GOD ME TOO!” my Victoria exclaimed into the wider-than-normal bowl of her champagne glass. Then she said “I LOVE YOUR PANTS” to a second waitress who was passing by to fill up our water glasses.

It’s that sort of place. You feel comfortable fast, and lose your inhibitions a little more quickly than normal. We were sitting on the outdoor deck, with views of the weedy-but-appealing St Mary’s College hillside. Book one of these tables and bring sunglasses, but watch out for those special wine glasses in the wind – they are light and beautiful and slide along your tabletop unnervingly with every decent gust.

Nash has hired chef Ryan Moore (ex The Grove, Bivacco) who is an exciting part of the formula here even if it feels like he’s a touch under-utilised in what looks a lot like a domestic kitchen at the back of the private function room. Much of the menu is plated rather than cooked – cured meats and a spectacularly large list of cheeses, for example – but the offering is strong enough to play a good support act to the wine list.

Despite coming with a chardonnay granita the oysters taste mostly of themselves – fresh and oceanic – but the menu of cooked items is (like the clientele) mostly very rich.

Though first in for dinner on Sunday we missed out on crayfish stuffed courgette flowers, which had sold out earlier in the weekend. We left the exceedingly indulgent-looking choux au craquelin (duck liver parfait baked in cookie dough) for next time but we did get a Comté tart – the cheese whipped into an almost liquid custard that spills out of the brittle pastry shell when you cut through it. The beautiful construction soon becomes a mess but everything tastes so good it definitely doesn’t matter: pickled shallots, mustard seeds and fresh heritage tomato slices mix together into beautiful mouthfuls. This dish is unlike anything I’ve come across in Auckland, and I’d love chef Ryan to put just a couple more of these ambitious plates on his menu.

Wagyu tartare doubles up on the tastiest condiments – mustard, Worcestershire sauce and French cornichons. It arrives with house-cooked kettle crisps which start to fade a bit when exposed to air but taste good even when they’re softening. A white asparagus dish was fantastic – this unicorn of the vegetable world, shaved carefully to remove any woody exterior and steamed just enough to take the rawness away. It’s served on a plate of horseradish hollandaise which design-wise is a little hard to scoop up with a segment of spear but you certainly get a good taste of it.

A stag do in the private room was drinking magnums of Barbaresco; at the table next to us two fabulous women with retail brands named after them caught up for a well-deserved end-of-year drink. But you don’t have to be wealthy or famous to enjoy yourself here and the staff keep things approachable and unpretentious. Every Auckland neighbourhood should have a wine bar this good; until then The Wine Room is worth driving across town for.

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