XXXXXXX XXXXXX
A Family
Affair
THE LE BRUN FAMILY HAS BEEN MAKING MÉTHODE TRADITIONELLE IN MARLBOROUGH FOR 40 YEARS, BUT ITS HISTORY IN PRODUCING PREMIUM BUBBLES GOES BACK MUCH FURTHER...
T
he No.1 Family Estate wine journey began in New Zealand in the 1970s, but the Le Brun family’s winemaking history reaches back more than 335 years to the Champagne region of France, with the first record of a Le Brun planting vines in Champagne in 1684. From a young age, Daniel Le Brun was immersed in the family vineyards and Champagne production in the village of Monthelon. He studied winemaking and oenology at the Champagne school in Avize. After listening to tales from seasonal grape pickers he visited New Zealand, saw the huge potential and decided to emigrate. Considering he was the eldest son, his decision came as a deep shock to his family and neighbours. “I was convinced right from the start that New Zealand could produce a world-class sparkling wine,” says Daniel. Arriving in New Zealand in 1975, Daniel began investigating the regions, with a view to planting his first Méthode Traditionelle vineyard. When he made his way down to Marlborough “his excitement at what he discovered was palpable and unstoppable,” says Daniel’s wife Adele. “The writing was on the wall – he saw in Marlborough a combination of climate and soils that could create a MéthodeTraditionelle to rival those wines of his native Champagne.” But first, a wedding. Kiwi Adele and Daniel were married in 1979 in Rotorua, and in June 1980, daughter Virginie was born. Four months later the time was right, and the family
16 WORLD OF WINE – SUMMER 2019/20
moved to Marlborough, and in possession of his Rotorua-grown nursery vines, Daniel finally planted his first Méthode Traditionelle vineyard, under his first venture, in Marlborough’s Wairau Valley. Daniel’s second Méthode vineyard in Marlborough, and his second venture, No.1 Family Estate, is the only winery in New Zealand dedicated exclusively to the production of Méthode Traditionelle, or as it was referred to then, Méthode Champenoise. “There were no Champagne varietals grown in Marlborough at the time,” says Adele. “It was predominantly Müller-Thurgau, a small amount of Sauvignon Blanc and some Riesling.” “When Daniel first arrived in New Zealand, the growing techniques and production
Daniel Le Brun, winemaker and owner
methods used in Champagne were unknown here. He was a pioneer for classic Méthode Traditionelle as a commercial venture and became known in the industry as the ‘crazy Frenchman’.” Some of the ‘crazy’ label was brought about by him planting his vines close together to put them under stress, which ultimately produced better quality fruit. Another ‘crazy’ moment was the shock and horror he caused by unearthing a hill, where Daniel built two underground cellars in which his future Méthodes would undergo their second fermentation in the bottle, in cool and stable conditions, as is the norm in Champagne. The only New Zealand sparkling wines available on the market at that time were created in a ‘soda stream’ method, by adding CO2 to create the bubble. Champagne bubbles, or mousse, are created during the second fermentation inside each bottle. The Champagne method should take at least two and a half years from picking the grapes to release. Daniel was also the first winemaker to import Champagne yeast into the Southern Hemisphere as well as specialised equipment from the region, which included a machine for disgorging the frozen plug and gyro pallets that gently tilt and turn the bottles, replicating the riddling process - once done painstakingly by hand. “Which incidentally Daniel did by hand for the first couple of years in Marlborough,” adds Adele. “In the early days it was impossible, unlike
