Life moves at an ambling pace in Nezu, one of those shitamachi neighborhoods in the east end of Tokyo that, to people more accustomed to the bustle of Shibuya or Shinjuku, can feel like a foreign country. It’s an ideal location for NZ Bar, a specialist New Zealand wine shop that would probably be rammed every night if it was in a more heavily trafficked area.
The name, apparently, was an afterthought. “We only realized after we’d chosen the location,” the barmaid admits. “It was a bit of a close call: once you get past the traffic lights, you’re into Sendagi. People from New Zealand, Australia and the UK get the reference, but as far as the locals are concerned, it’s ‘NZ’ as in ‘Nezu.’”
The decor is pretty minimal—tiled floor, white walls, and bulbs dangling on long cords from the exposed concrete ceiling. There’s table seating, some of it a bit wobbly, as well as a bar counter. The soundtrack is as Kiwi-centric as the wine list: our most recent visit was serenaded by a Ladyhawke CD stuck on repeat, followed—inevitably—by Crowded House.
To say that the wine selection at NZ Bar is good would be an understatement. The shop also runs an online store specializing in New Zealand vintages, and enjoys a close relationship with many of the country’s top vineyards. The walls carry the signatures of visiting vintners from Martinborough, Mountford Estate, Rippon, Wooing Tree and many others.
There’s a daily rotating selection of four reds and four whites available by the glass, starting at ¥580 and going up to around ¥2,000. On the barmaid’s recommendation, we begin with a Neudorf Pinot Gris 2008 (¥1,300), which is excellent. Ditto the subsequent Woodthorpe Vineyard Syrah 2007 (¥1,200), light with hints of black pepper.
The wine list runs to nearly 150 bottles, and comes with a note advising that it’s “basically updated every day.” Whites run from ¥3,200 (mostly hovering in the ¥5,000-¥8,000 range), and reds from ¥3,900—going up to ¥31,500 for Quartz Reef Bendigo Pinot Noir 2005. These are hardly rock-bottom prices, but they compare favorably to what you’d pay at, say, Aotea Rangi in Ebisu or Arossa in Shibuya.
Wooed by the aromas wafting from the kitchen, we can’t resist sampling the daily food menu, though it’s a mixed bag. The girlfriend plumps for a big plate of spaghetti in a rich cream tomato sauce swarming with small squid (¥1,200), and mozzarella medamayaki gratin (¥600), which is a real artery clogger. The ratatouille (¥600) bears little resemblance to traditional renditions of the dish—it’s more like a roasted vegetable salad, really—but is still tasty. The blue cheese pizza with egg, onion and aubergine (¥1,000) looks like some kind of snack bar disaster when it arrives at our table and only tastes a little better, though there’s no faulting the Miyazaki mussels in white wine (¥800).