Meet the Wife + Husband Duo Behind Love + Glory
Nicole St. Pierre
FOUNDER + GM
American by birth, South-Aussie by choice, Nicole left her life in New York City behind and moved to South Australia with a singular goal in mind: to pursue a long-time interest in learning the craft of making wine.
Three years later, with three vintages as a cellar hand in James's winery under her belt, Nicole's passion for health and wellness, has provided an important inspiration for Love + Glory.
"I've shed 30 kg of body weight since leaving NYC behind. A major part of my transformation has been realising what a detrimental impact sugar and stress (from not living the life yout want to live!) can have on your body. Much to my dismay, I learned a large source of my regular sugar intake was actually coming from my ritual bottles of weekend bubbly. I realised there had to be a better way."
James Hastwell
WINEMAKER
With more than 20 years of experience crafting wine in McLaren Vale and Napa Valley, South-Aussie native, James, takes pride in producing vibrant, full-flavoured, fruit-forward wines that are lively, approachable, and meant to be enjoyed now with family and friends.
No stranger to hard work in the vineyard, James helped his family plant their first vines when he was just 10 years old. When James isn't working in the winery or walking the vineyard, you can find him in his workshop tinkering or doing earthworks in his John Deere tractor on his and Nicole's beloved Waitpinga farm block.
A Quest to Make the Best Tasting Sugar-Free Sparkling Wine in Australia
For wife and husband duo Nicole St. Pierre + James Hastwell, Love + Glory is the ultimate celebration of their ideas in action.
"James and I have both come to realise that a life fully lived isn't a given; it requires first discovering what it is you truly LOVE, and then courageously, relentlessly and intentionally pursuing those values until achieved. In short, a life fully lived requires action. It is a GLORY that must be earned.” (Nicole St. Pierre, Founder)
A heroic feat, they recognise, that is often easier said than done.
When James and Nicole first met in James’s winery in 2019, they were both hungry to leave their well-worn paths behind and swiftly bonded over a shared desire to forge new kinds of lives for themselves.
Nicole had recently left a high-stress corporate job in New York City in pursuit of both a healthier and happier lifestyle. James, a veteran winemaker with more than twenty years of experience making wine for other people, hungered for freedom and a project he could make uniquely his own.
Nicole reflects:
“A year prior to my arrival in Australia, I had reached a low point with my health. I was nearly 30 kgs overweight and blood test results indicated a high level of chronic inflammation was ravaging my body. I also had signs of Hashimoto's thyroid autoimmune disease (although this wouldn't be properly diagnosed until nearly two years later). James, too, had been dealing with his fair share of health and autoimmune-related issues, so together, we set to work experimenting with various dietary and lifestyle changes to see if we could "hack" our health.
Together, we experimented with various lifestyle changes to see if we could hack our health. We tried keto, dairy-free, gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian, paleo, fodmap, lectin-free, and more. You name it; we tried it! After more than a year of experimenting, the overarching principle we identified was that dramatically reducing sugar in our diet (and ultimately controlling our blood sugar) was king.
I was devastated to learn just how much sugar was hidden in my favourite, go-to bottles of sparkling wine. I knew there had to be a solution: giving up sugar and leading a healthier lifestyle didn't have to mean giving up delicious, fruity, flavourful bubbly...”
A uniquely full-flavoured, ultra low sugar sparkling wine was just the kind of project that sparked James’s excitement. He saw the potential to source premium, sustainably-grown, alternative McLaren Vale grape varieties from his family's vineyard to make something truly unique and delicious.
Most importantly, however, together Nicole + James saw an opportunity to build a brand that would reflect the very ideas that had brought them together — the pursuit of values they truly loved, a toast to happiness (glory) that could be earned, a yearning for life fully lived.
And just like that, Love + Glory Brut Nature Sparkling Wine was born —an intentionally crafted bottle of bubbly as beautiful and celebratory on the outside as it is on the inside — a delight to both give and receive.
Love + Glory is our toast and salute to those who are striving every day, as we are, to build lives they love. We hope each sip inspires you to intentionally craft a life you love and that ultimately, love + glory becomes your story, too.
Nicole x