Setting himself up for his post-rugby career, Barrett’s sideline business sees him partner with the respected French wine connoisseur Jean-Benoit Auzely.
Beauden Barrett launched a new business this year, Beau Jour, a premium wine membership club.
Barrett obtained a liquor licence last year, which allows Beau Jour to sell directly in New Zealand. The business functions like a VIP club, operating on an exclusive wine mailing list that introduces customers to special and rare French wines.
Its wine list ranges from $35 bottles of Chateau Bonneau 2020 Merlot Cabernet Franc blend, right through to Petrus 2009 Merlot, which has an estimated value of more than $10,000 per bottle.
Barrett has been known for years for his appreciation of a fine wine, but said his true love for French wine grew in 2023 when he was in France to play in the Rugby World Cup. There he had the privilege of meeting incredible individuals in the viticultural field throughout the country.
Beau Jour has had several tasting events this year in the private dining room at College Hill’s The Wine Room by David Nash. The venue’s subterranean private cellar is said to house more than a few bottles of wine from wealthy Beau Jour clients.
Beau Jour selections by Barrett have also been a hot ticket this year for rich-list dinner parties and larger events.
After the All Blacks’ Northern Tour last month, Barrett’s wife, Hannah, who is pregnant with their third child, joined him in Europe.
Luxury Swiss watch maker TUDOR flew the Barretts and several other All Black ambassadors by private jet to Geneva for some fun and brand work.
Hannah and Beauden Barrett in the vineyards of Champagne.
Hannah and Beauden Barrett are hosted for a Dom Pérignon tasting at Moët & Chandon.
The Barretts then travelled to France and visited the Champagne region’s various vineyards, including the world’s largest Champagne house, Moet & Chandon.
They ended their trip in Paris, staying at the luxurious Bvlgari Hotel in the city’s golden triangle.
Hottest headline-making couples
Marc Ellis and Mibella Villafana in Ibiza.
We revealed in July that Kiwi media man and former All Black, Marc Ellis and his American partner, Mibella Villafana had transformed a basement space in Auckland’s Grey Lynn into a new wellness centre.
After a European holiday in August, they opened Cora Studio, where they have been sharing their wellness wisdom to full classes ever since.
The couple has been dating since early last year and live together in Grey Lynn with their blended families. Villafana has two children, and Ellis has four.
Teagan Voykovich and Aaron Smith separated this year.
It hasn’t been such a good year for another former All Black. Last month, we revealed that a couple we had followed for a decade, former All Black Aaron Smith and his wife Teagan Voykovich, had separated after four years of marriage.
Smith is now playing rugby in Japan with Toyota Verblitz, and gym-loving Voykovich is embracing life, fitness and most of all being a mother to their two boys at their rural lifestyle property just out of Hamilton.
Biggest buzz
Helicopters have been making headlines this year, with Sir John Key buying a new one, Anna Mowbray and Ali Williams getting permission to land one on their front lawn, and luxury golf clubs Tara Iti and Te Arai facing restricted landings at their courses.
Sir John Key has his pilot license and upgraded his helicopter this year.
Former Prime Minister Key upgraded to an Airbus H130 helicopter in February. New H130s are reported to cost $6 million.
“I am in partnership on the new machine with a fabulous family, and the coalition talks are definitely more relaxed than those in my time in politics,” Key told Society Insider.
The H130 is a favourite among Auckland’s super wealthy. Rich-listers, including property titan Steve Owen and Empire Capital’s Paula and Simon Herbert, have similar machines.
Ali Williams and Anna Mowbray.
It’s also known to be the preferred transportation for Mowbray and Williams.
After countless headlines, the couple’s controversial application for a helipad at their $24m Westmere property was approved in June at a resource consent hearing.
However, Mowbray and Williams have been sitting on a consent they cannot use until appeal proceedings are determined.
In October, Quiet Sky Waitematā, the Tree Council and Urban Auckland appealed against Auckland Council’s decision to grant resource consent, and despite the council being the respondent, it was firmly on the appellant’s side.
There is still no official word on landings; it was reported another hearing was to be scheduled for this month but that has yet to happen.
Meanwhile, we reported in October that Te Arai Links and Tara Iti had just over a month to make sure their rich and famous members could continue to arrive in helicopters to enjoy a round on their world-famous golf courses.
The 16th green at Te Arai Links North Course. Photo / Ricky Robinson
Auckland Council issued abatement notices in September to the Tara Iti club and Te Arai Links, stating that, because of a lack of resource consent, helicopter operations would cease on November 21.
However, high-flying golfers got a reprieve for the summer. Auckland Council extended the clubs’ deadline to March 31 to give them more time to apply for resource consent.
The surprise hospitality hit
Bronwyn and Jessica Payne launched Jacuzzi this year, the new bar and restaurant on the site of the former SPQR.
We were the first to reveal in September 2024 that hospitality sisters Bronwyn and Jessica Payne, who own Ponsonby establishments, Hoppers Garden Bar and Elmo’s, had secured the lease on the former SPQR restaurant spot.
Many regulars of the Ponsonby Rd hospitality institution SPQR were sceptical of what the Payne sisters could bring to the iconic venue. But since the grand opening in February, the Paynes and their staff have pleased both young and old with a space that’s always got buzz and has even impressed the reviewers.
Jacuzzi was named as one of Auckland’s best restaurants in the Viva top 50 restaurant awards in November.
Jacuzzi hosted a packed Melbourne Cup event in early November with Veuve Clicquot, a nod to the SPQR days when the Clicquot yellow awnings were a signature. Later that month, it was named as one of the Viva top 50 Auckland restaurants, not only earning a place on the list, but also winning a special category award as the best place to dress up, which surprised the sisters and their staff who were all humble but very proud.
Last Friday was their busiest day since opening, with Christmas bookings overflowing.
Last night, they kept their Hopper bar open past midnight for their annual orphans’ Christmas, where travelling tourists can come together to start their Christmas Day away from their families.
Jacuzzi is closed from today until January 7, and the Paynes tell Society Insider they are planning a huge first birthday party at the end of this summer, which will be full of glamour and gratitude.
Most popular society politician
Property developer Nigel McKenna with Education Minister Erica Stanford at McKenna and Sarisa Nasinprom’s engagement party in November. Photo / Paul Menezes
Education and Immigration Minister Erica Stanford’s influence in Auckland’s society circles has been impossible to ignore this year.
Among her obligations in her East Coast electorate, Stanford has become one of Breast Cancer Foundation New Zealand’s (BCFNZ) biggest champions, as she continues the work of her former colleague, the late Nikki Kaye.
With her good friend, veteran Auckland restaurateur Tony Astle, she championed an BCFNZ charity event in May.
She was the special guest and speaker at a $3000-per-head BCFNZ dinner curated by Astle at the Wave Room, inside AUT.
Stanford and her husband Kane, who is the general manager of NZ-based beverage business Besos Margarita, were guests at property developer Nigel McKenna and Sarisa Nasinprom’s lavish engagement party last month at McKenna’s Abstract Hotel.
The pair make quite the power couple, and aside from the bride and groom to be, were the most popular couple in the room with Auckland’s movers and shakers.
The golden scandal we didn’t see coming
Former Cabinet Minister Stuart Nash. Photo / Warren Buckland
We interviewed former Labour Cabinet Minister Stuart Nash mid-year, about his new business, Nash Kelly Global, a partnership with Kiwi forestry tycoon Andrew Kelly.
Established after Nash was dismissed from Cabinet by Prime Minister at the time Chris Hipkins for sharing confidential Cabinet information, the business offers a very discreet, high-end service for high-net worth individuals looking to relocate to NZ through the golden visa programme.
Nash told Society Insider that leaving politics has allowed him to reinvent himself, but also continue the work he was doing within his portfolios of tourism and economic development.
Stuart Nash and Andrew Kelly.
Nash was a surprise speaker at September’s NZ First conference in Palmerston North, with the party’s leader Winston Peters saying Nash would be a “seamless” addition to the party. Nash told the media afterwards that his former party had gone “woke” and Hipkins had stabbed him in the back.
Three days later, in what we are sure Nash himself would describe as a trying-too-hard moment of being anti-woke, he disgraced himself in an interview with Sean Plunket on The Platform, describing a woman as a “person with a p**** and a pair of t***”.
Within a week, Nash had resigned from his contracting job at recruitment agency Robert Walters, and later that month, was dropped from a government trade and investment promotion trip to the United States.
Nash Kelly Global continues to serve high-net worth individuals, and Society Insider predicts Nash will also be moving into high-end real estate sales after the Government’s announcement two weeks ago that holders of the Active Investor Plus residency visa will be able to purchase or build a home in NZ.
As for next year’s election and NZ First, as long as Nash is humble, there’s potential for him to become a politician as well as a businessman, again.
Weddings of the year, in Queenstown, Maui and Venice
Max Feldstein and Maia Cotton at their wedding reception at Drift Wood Bay.
The year’s best society wedding was also the first of 2025. US-based former Victoria’s Secret model, Maia Cotton, married New York venture capitalist Max Feldstein in Queenstown on January 2.
With rumours of pop star Justin Bieber in attendance, the local media were in a spin.
Although Bieber wasn’t spotted at the wedding, there were many guests from the pop star’s circle, including IMG Entertainment’s Cully Smoller, a close friend of model Gigi Hadid, with his fiancée, model Kendall Visser, and her model brother Neels. (Smoller once dated Bieber’s wife Hailey.)
Grace Ann Nader, left, and sister Brooks Nader, front left and centre, at the wedding of NZ model Maia Cotton and Max Feldstein in Queenstown.
Aside from the bride and groom, the stars of the show were Sports Illustrated cover star model Brooks Nader and her three sisters, Mary Holland, Grace Ann and Sarah Jane, who, days before the wedding, made international headlines by swimming naked in one of the Southern Alps’ glacial lakes while on a heli-hike in the mountains.
Those shenanigans didn’t make the sisters’ Disney+ reality series Love Thy Nadar when it premiered in August.
The Cotton family are close friends of Sally Ridge and her children – Boston, Astin and Mclane Parore. Sally’s boyfriend, multimillionaire Queenstown property developer John Darby, Boston’s girlfriend Tabitha Jessop, and Astin’s girlfriend Amelia Beder were all in Queenstown for the wedding celebrations.
Darby’s award-winning Amisfield restaurant was the spot for a glamorous New Year’s Eve wedding pre-party.
The couple’s nuptials were at the Italian-inspired private estate Colpo Di Fulmine on Lower Shotover Rd. The black-tie reception was held at Drift Bay Private Villa, set on 10 acres of waterfront land with views of The Remarkables, Lake Wakatipu and Cecil Peak.
Brad Pitt and Taika Waititi spent time together in Queenstown earlier this year, filming a commercial for De’Longhi.
Drift Bay was also the setting in February for the Taika Waititi-directed ad for De’Longhi, starring Hollywood star Brad Pitt, who was filming adventure movie Heart of the Beast in Central Otago at the time.
While Cotton came home for her nuptials, the other two weddings of the year took place overseas.
In June, New Zealand’s uber wealthy gathered at the $20m Hawaiian home of Sky TV founder and rich-lister Craig Heatley, for the wedding of his Sydney-based daughter Sophie.
Tyler Martin and Sophie Heatley got married in Maui.
The Maui black-tie wedding to her long-term partner, former Australian water polo Olympian, Tyler Martin, was organised by Laice Bollen from Place of LB. Bollen had also organised Cotton’s wedding and the 2023 Australian wedding of Cotton’s fellow Kiwi Victoria Secret model, Georgia Fowler.
Guests of note included Below Deck star Katie Flood and Zuru co-owners Nick and Mat Mowbray, along with Nick’s fiancée, Jaimee Lupton, and Mat’s wife, Christina Tang.
Ali Andrews and Raphael Wertheimer got married this year in Venice, after a summer travelling in Europe.
The most glamorous wedding was in Venice in October. Kiwi heiress Ali Andrews officially married Raphael Wertheimer, the son of New York-based multi-billionaire Alain Wertheimer, the co-owner of Chanel.
In Venice, the couple played host to a glittering contingent of well-known Kiwis, who spent nearly a week celebrating along the canals.
More than a dozen Kiwis made the trip, including Italian-based America’s Cup sailing legend, Peter Burling, his wife Lucinda and her sister Arabella Nelson; former broadcaster Dominic Bowden and his fiancée Esther Cronin; along with rich-list daughters Cameo Turner and Libby Owen, with her brother Nick; and Monaco-based rich-listers Paula and Simon Herbert.
The young entrepreneur of the year
Astin Parore shows off his new Eco-Bag at New World.
We revealed in February that Astin Parore, then 21, was a supermarket mogul in the making.
The entrepreneurial son of former Black Cap, multimillionaire Adam Parore, and interior designer Ridge, set up a new business, Mr Grocer.
From his work as a grocery delivery boy and his passion for supermarkets, he struck a deal with supermarket giant Foodstuffs to sell a product he designed in the hope of making shoppers’ lives easier.
Working from his garage at home, his first product, the CarryBuddy, is a reusable plastic tool with a rubber handle that helps customers hold several shopping bags at a time, retailing at $14.99.
It was a hit with shoppers, and the story was picked up by multiple news outlets.
Parore finished the year growing Mr Grocer from his garage to a warehouse. Last month, he released his second product for Foodstuffs, the Eco-Bag, an all-natural reusable grocery bag, in three styles, retailing at $8.99. Two of the bags are charity partnerships with the Starship Foundation and the Child Cancer Foundation, and feature messages of hope. Fifty cents from each bag sold goes directly to the charity.
Ricardo Simich has been with the Herald since 2008 where he contributed to The Business Insider. In 2012 he took over Spy at the Herald on Sunday, which has since evolved into Society Insider. The weekly column gives a glimpse into the worlds of the rich and famous.