If your days of rocking up to a BYO with the cheapest plonk possible are over, you’ll find some of the most exciting bottles in Aotearoa at Wellington wine bar and shop Puffin. Here are four of the best, and where to drink them.
Wine has changed. No longer is it the reserve of the super wealthy who spend time building cellars to store rare vintages, creating worth through exclusivity. Today in Aotearoa there are makers who create wine with much more immediacy and democracy, using traditional methods and eschewing the conventional markers of “good wine”. This is wine made by people who want their wine to be drunk and enjoyed by as many people as possible, and they have fun while doing it.
The epicentre of this movement in Wellington is Puffin Wine Bar. Opened by Hannah Wells in 2019, it’s a space dedicated to the small, independent producers that are the very beating heart of modern wine in this country. The bottle shop within the bar opened in 2024 and is home to potentially the single best wine fridge anywhere in the country (shoutout also to Vinci’s in Napier). I spent the morning with Ella Malinda, assistant bar manager, and asked her to pick four wines you’ve probably never heard of, plus which Wellington BYO you should take them to.
All these wines are available online from the winery websites and various retailers, so you can still enjoy them even if you live outside the capital.
Assistant bar manager Ella Malinda and the wine fridge at Puffin
Rippon Sauvignon Blanc ($40)
A vineyard on the shores of Lake Wānaka that has been farmed for four generations, Rippon’s early planting and experimentation was one of the foundational moments in the now world-famous Central Otago pinot noir. People may have heard the name Rippon, but often the winery’s biodynamic and organic credentials are missed. They are truly pioneers who have respect for the soil and land at the very heart of what they do. There is often an assumption that natural wines need to be cloudy, whereas this drop is precise and detailed. This sauvignon blanc is pineapple, passionfruit and salt – all things bright and vibrant.
This bottle should be taken to Dragons where you need to order the prawn toast. The salt and the tropical fruits will cut through the greasy, buttery goodness, your fingers greasy on the outside of the thick glass. Perfect.
Three Fates Albariño ($39)
Three Fates started life in a group chat during Covid and is now one of the most fun and drinkable wines in the whole country. Better known as Holly Girven Russell, Hester Nesbitt and Casey Motley, Three Fates makes wines that are immediately approachable to young people. While still mature and complex, they are just so much fun – filled with all the energy and vibrancy of the makers. People often don’t really know what albariño is. This version is a wine that is textural and, while it has the traditional salt and lemon, it moves into mandarin and nectarine before finishing with so much brightness. At their last launch, the Three Fates team paired all the wines with dollar lolly bags; the match for this was Turkish delight.
Take this bottle to Rasa and order the beef rendang. Often wine pairing is about combating acidity or fat, whereas this is all about matching. This wine is just so comforting and rich, just like the beef rendang.
Rasa (Image: Supplied)
Halcyon Days Vermillion ($38)
Halcyon Days is the label run by Hawke’s Bay winemaking legends Amy and Ollie Hopkins, a couple who make wine that is playful but purposeful. The vermillion is predominantly sangiovese, a variety originating in Italy, which is then topped up with a chardonnay. This is the perfect introduction to chilled reds, and at only 10% ABV it’s also the best picnic wine that has ever existed. This is a wine that is pomegranate forward in that way that when you bite into the fruit it’s super fresh and bursting with flavour, but then it dries your mouth – which is exactly the joy of the heat of the Hawke’s Bay.
Take this to Mother of Coffee on the Left Bank, just off Cuba. Get the vegan combo, with piles of injera, and enjoy the wine with all of that ginger, onion and garlic.
Jannine Rickards of Huntress (Photo: Charlotte Muru-Lanning)
Huntress Matiti 2024 Pétillant-Naturel ($57)
Jannine Rickards is a huntress. Raised in the hills of the Coromandel Peninsula, from a young age she learned to work with the land to provide for herself and her family. Now in the heart of the Wairarapa, she is pushing at the edges of what wine can and should be in modern Aotearoa. As part of Matiti, a collective of wāhine Māori who aim to “amplify Māori in winemaking” and “restore and deepen connections to mātauranga Māori”, she has this year released the first ever Hua Parakore-certified wine. Matiti denotes the seven phases of summer, and this wine is all of the joys of summer, refined and shrunk down into a bottle. It is vibrant and alive with energy, super bubbly and filled with green apple. It is exactly the wine we should all be drinking.
This is a bottle that should be taken to your favourite mee goreng spot, wherever that is. At Puffin, the loss of Satay Village is still too big to move past so we are respectfully not going to suggest another spot.