Column: Way back in the early 1980s my work required me to regularly 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 …