Winemaker Janine Rickards shares her top food spots around the Wairarapa region, from impeccable cheese toasties to fabulously fresh kaimoana.

“It’s a region where food, land and community feel like they’re woven together,” says winemaker Jannine Rickards (Ngā Puhi, Te Roroa, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Hauā) of her longtime home and stomping ground, Wairarapa.

Rickards is active across the overlapping worlds of food, wine and hospitality, though most will probably recognise her by way of Huntress, the wine label she founded in 2017. Guided by seasonality, texture and the organically farmed fruit she uses, the wines are designed to complement wild, local and foraged foods. While based in Wairarapa – a region Rickards has drifted in and out of since 2005 – she also works with fruit from Hawke’s Bay, with a North Canterbury wine currently in the pipeline as well.

Here, Rickards shares her favourite culinary pit stops around the Wairarapa so you can follow in her expert footsteps.

Three words that sum up the food in Wairarapa: Seasonal, generous, grounded.

Everyone has a dining out pet peeve. Mine is: People who don’t show gratitude and thanks to the restaurant team. Hospo is bloody hard work and more thanks is deserved.

The local dish I crave most: Locally (and freshly) harvested kaimoana from my friends at Tora Collective out on the coast. Especially around December when the kina are nice and fat and the crays taste especially sweet.

The best restaurant in Wairarapa is: Mesita is my favourite and my go-to. I like its vibe, especially when DJ Takas is in the house. Alice Bourdot started Mesita at the same time I launched Huntress. It’s been great to share the highs and lows of running a small business – it’s a journey!

Why I love Mesita: The menu is small but everything is a hit. The fried chicken is untouchable and the margaritas are the best in town. The wine list is tight with a few local favourites on there… including Huntress.

My go-to order is: At Mesita anything goes. It’s all sharing-style anyway, so just order anything and everything. It’s hard not to order the fried chicken. The tacos and a pickled egg are pretty much always part of my order too. Perfect with a margarita or a glass of Huntress Waikoa.

A place I’ve been dying to try is: Stable Greytown on Kuratawhiti Street. I have heard nothing but amazing things about the pastries. They’re open only in the mornings of the weekends which I have been working lately, but I can’t wait to visit when I eventually get a weekend off.

Celebrating with a group? Book a table at: Literally any one of our amazing wineries with a restaurant for a long lunch in the sunshine. 

The BYO I keep going back to: My place or a friend’s place. We winemakers like long dinners together, opening special bottles from the cellar. We can all cook pretty well too, so long pot luck dinners are always a good time for a kōrero and catch up.

Got visitors from out of town? I’m taking them to: Probably Mesita – my go-to. Karahui and Tohi are also worth a visit.

An ideal date spot would be: A bush hut in the Aorangi Ranges with a fireplace roaring, outdoor bath under the stars, ruru (moreporks) calling and a river running nearby. Oh, and no phone coverage. All with a glass of local pinot noir or two and some venison cooked over the embers. 

Make sure to order: BYO bottles. Stop in at the Martinborough Wine Merchants to buy all the region’s local gems.

But I’d advise you to avoid the: Long drop. Use the new composting wharepaku instead.

Wairarapa’s best… 

Breakfast: Nara in Martinborough. If you are splashing out for brekkie or brunch these guys have a delicious menu and great coffee and beverage offering right on the square. Jalapeño cornbread waffles are a favourite for me. 

Coffee: Kitcheners in Martinborough is open early, consistent and so friendly.  The manaakitanga is next level – they know almost everyone by name as well as their coffee order.

Sandwich: A toastie at C’est Cheese in Featherston. Cheese is life for me after living and working in France at various periods of my life for harvest and the growing season in the vines. I might have an unhealthy addiction to cheese, but I really don’t care. The toasties here are so worth it. Great also if you’ve had a couple wines too many the night before. If you can’t get to Featherston, a bacon buttie at Kitcheners is also fantastic.

Fish and chips: Lake Ferry Pub or JP’s Waimeha Campground – both solid with epic views of Te Waipounamu on a good day.

And the best place to unwrap and eat them is: At the bar if the weather is wild or down on the beach if the wind isn’t blowing.

Bread: The Martinborough Bakery’s sourdough loaves. The owner Jo is a bit grumpy but her bread is so great. Jo owned Cafe Medici in Martinborough for a long time. They’re only open for limited days and hours so a hike up to the Clareville Bakery is my other go-to. Fortunately, The Baker in Featherston also makes great bread so I am surrounded by options.

Baked treat: Sitting in the sunshine at The Land Girl, a cafe in Pirinoa, with a lamington or any sweet treat is nice.

For a serious sweet tooth, head to: The Clareville Bakery. It’s a must when in the Wairarapa.  But it’s also so hard to choose from their selection of sweet things. I tend to order a cream donut – it was my dad’s favourite.

If you’re after spice, make a beeline for: Aroma India. They have outposts in Greytown and Martinborough. Hits the spice spot each and every time.

The place to go if you want to feel virtuous: Famly Organic Market (“there’s no I in famly”) in Whakaoriori Masterton. These guys have a little organic grocer and cafe. Go for matcha, great coffee and wholesome, organic kai made with aroha. They’re fucking legends. I only wish it wasn’t 40 minutes away from me.

The dairy with the best lolly selection: Not technically a dairy but The Martinborough Sweet Shop is dedicated to lollies. So go there.

A little local treat that always cheers me up: I head to The French Bakery in Greytown and order either a sausage roll or the chocolate tart depending on whether I’m in a savoury or sweet mood.

My favourite grocery shop: I’m so grateful to have a Moore Wilson’s in Whakaoriori Masterton, but generally I try to avoid the supermarket. If I can’t grow or hunt my own, I have local organic vege growers like Little Farms and Vagabond Veges, or A Complete Cow for a regeneratively grown meat box which they deliver to your front door. 

For the best produce, I stop in at: Famly Organic Market.

My favourite local hospo personality: Marvin Guerrero from Gracias Coffee. His smile and energy is vivacious and contagious.

For outstanding people watching, go to: Martinborough Hotel on the Square or the White Swan in Greytown. Both classic pubs, but also both great locations to watch the world, and fellow pub patrons pass you by.

A local spot I wish we could bring back from the dead is: In the early 2000s we had The French Bistro in Martinborough. It was owned by Wendy and Jim Campbell, John Campbell’s parents. It was epic. So, so, so good.  

A restaurant I would love to relocate to Martinborough: Eek, that’s a hard one. There are so many epic spots around the motu. But I’d have to say Pici. A plate of Pici cacio e pepe, a glass of something interesting and new – perfect. I can’t go past the focaccia and the semifreddo either. They’re so good at what they do. Total vibe.

The place I return to again and again: Locally, my most regular spot is Mesita.

Why I love eating in Wairarapa: I’ve spent more than 20 years here on and off. I love its wildness: the moana and the bush, the pāua, kina and cray, venison and wild poaka and the incredible wines of the region – especially Martinborough pinot noir. Wairarapa is home for me. Not by birth or whakapapa, but through the time I’ve spent here and connections I’ve made.