Taste of Nelson

Way back in the early 1980s my work required me to travel to Marlborough and I remember keeping an eye on a massive hole being dug in the hillside on the entrance to the Renwick township.

When I asked a local what was being built they told me ‘‘some crazy Frenchman has planted some grapes and is building a winery’’.

That ‘‘crazy Frenchman’’ was Daniel Le Brun and that hole in the hillside was to become New Zealand’s first underground cellar and the place he would go on to age the sparkling wines he made.

I have been a huge fan of the wines made by Daniel and Adele Le Brun over the years and have great memories of going to a number of vintage release dinners (read big parties) in a marquee at the Renwick site in the early 1990s.

They were events that were a pure celebration of excellence in winemaking by a man who brought his Champagne heritage to Marlborough to make sparkling wines in the up-and-coming Marlborough wine region where sauvignon blanc was the new kid on the block.

The No 1 website records that ‘‘on the 5th November 1985, 5 years after their arrival in Marlborough, Daniel and Adele finally celebrated the first release of Daniel Le Brun NV. They were in the