Daniel Le Brun

1980

Adele and Daniel, along with 4-month-old daughter Virginie, made the move to Marlborough. Daniel brought with him 50,000 cuttings from his Rotorua nursery. These hand-grown vines went into cool storage until they purchased 30 acres along State Highway 6 to plant their first Marlborough vineyard and a site in Renwick (where Mahi is today) for the winery.

Daniel took on a second job, developing and managing vineyards for absentee owners while he waited for his vines to grow and imported specialised equipment to arrive. To develop his vineyard and Méthode Traditionelle venture from scratch took significant investment and many years before the wines would be commercially available.

Source

https://www.no1familyestate.co.nz/our-story/40-years-pioneering-methode-traditionelle

photo and text 

second photo Photograph credit: Marlborough Archives, Marlborough Museum. Wine photograph collection