No.1 News and Updates

June is here and that means it’s time to visit Winetopia in both Auckland (22nd – 23rd June) and Wellington (29th – 30th June.

Winetopia is your opportunity to try hundreds of lovingly crafted wines, be inspired by famous faces and learn from wine gurus. You’ll discover delicious food pairings washed down with sultry live entertainment.

Of course, your Winetopia experience wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the No.1 Family Estate stand for a glass of bubbles, so we’ll look forward to seeing you there! As ever, we're making it a family affair... Remy will be in Auckland, and you'll find Virginie in Wellington. You'll have the opportunity to taste the classic No. 1 Cuvée, as well as No 1 Rosé, No. 1 Assemblé and the limited edition No. 1 Reserve.

Winetopia is the biggest public wine tasting event in New Zealand and a great wine day out.

• Winetopia, Shed 10, Auckland – 22nd and 23rd June. Buy Your Tickets.
• Winetopia, TSB Arena, Wellington – 29th – 30th June. Buy Your Tickets.

We’re excited to let you know that with a new release, No 1 Rosé is back!

100% Pinot Noir, delicate salmon-pink with a mass of tiny bubbles, this wine offers a seamless balance of subtle cherry and almond hints combined with a fresh acidity. Dry, yet fresh and elegant, this wine leaves a lasting impression of opulence and splendour.

While, this wine celebrates the superb climate of Marlborough, we believe it truly is a wine for all seasons to be enjoyed whatever the weather!

Contrary, to popular belief, your No.1 Rosé should never be considered simply as an aperitif. It’s quite at home as the star of the show! As a food-pairing champion it’s delicious with duck and lamb, and in the depths of a southern hemisphere winter what could be more comforting than roast lamb for Sunday lunch… Time to break out the bubbles!

If you’re in the northern hemisphere and enjoying a splash of summer, we’ve discovered the perfect recipe for you, a deconstructed cassoulet in a summer salad, with crispy duck legs and mesclun salad! Perfect for al fresco dining. Find the recipe HERE.

In the UK? Order your wines from Amathus, or if you’re in New Zealand buy online.

At No.1 Family Estate we believe there’s always an occasion to raise a glass of bubbles. In fact, we generally concur with Madam Lily Bollinger, who said, 

“I only drink champagne when I’m happy and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I’m not in a hurry and drink it when I am, otherwise, I never touch the stuff unless I am thirsty.”

But, for those of you in or around London who are looking for an occasion to toast something special here are three reasons to raise a glass this month.

1.     Happy Holidays – With, not one, but two public holidays in May we’re all hoping for some sunshine. If the weather gods don’t shine, make sure your extra day off sparkles nevertheless! Buy your wine from Amathus.

2.     Royal Nuptials – On May 19th Prince Harry will marry Meghan Markle at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle. Of course, you don’t need to be in or around London to toast this, but if you are in the vicinity of Windsor Castle, the Carriage Procession should begin around 1:00 pm. Enjoy a long lunch afterward, with bubbles of course!

3.     Let’s Get Fizzical - Join us at Let's Get Fizzical; a Three Wine Men event. Oz Clarke, Tim Atkin MW and Olly Smith have searched the globe for their favourite Champagnes and sparkling wines and No.1 Family Estate is among them! Tickets are very limited for this special tasting and sold out last year so if you love bubbles buy your tickets here. 

Here at No. 1 Family Estate, as our name suggests, we believe family is tremendously important! And the day is fast approaching where it’s customary to celebrate a very special family member… May 13th is Mother’s Day!

If one was to compile a job description for the post of Mum, it would be never-ending, and the skills required to do that job would be numerous. But of course, it’s not always a Mum who does the job of a mum… So, we want to give you the chance to treat the person you think is the Best Mum in the world, whoever that may be!

We're giving away... Seven $100 Vouchers for seven fabulous restaurants around New Zealand. All you have to do to enter is fill out the entry form HERE.

Here are four other ways to celebrate the person you call Mum on Mother’s Day!

• Breakfast in Bed – Make it a sparkling start to a celebratory day, by including a glass of bubbles.
• A Special Saunter – Take your Mum on her favourite Sunday jaunt. If you’re out and about in Blenheim call into our cellar door on Rapaura Road and we’ll make sure you get to raise a glass to celebrate.
• Lovely Lunch –  Whether you make Sunday lunch at home, or head out to a favourite restaurant, it wouldn’t be complete without a bottle of bubbly.
• Happy High Tea – Enjoy a deliciously decadent afternoon tea. Choose sweet and savoury treats that are sure to delight, but don’t forget the fizz!

However, you choose to spoil Mum we wish you all a marvellous day and remember, we can deliver a special gift to your special mum! Buy yours HERE.

Easter is just around the corner and that means a lovely long weekend!

If you’re in the Northern hemisphere you’ll be hoping for a little spring sunshine, and in the Southern hemisphere, we’ll be hoping that the last days of summer bring us some warm days to ease us very gently into Autumn. But, even if the weather doesn't play ball, with the right wine you can still ensure your long weekend is a sparkling success!

Here is our No1 guide for Easter festivities sure to bubble over with joy!

• Get the party started early - Plan a delicious brunch with eggs, (of course… It’s Easter), smoked salmon, bagels and don’t forget the bubbles! Perfect for a family get together before everybody heads off to do their own thing. Choose No. 1 Assemblé as the perfect accompaniment.
• Enjoy a long lunch – There’s nothing quite like a long, lazy lunch with family or friends. But don’t serve bubbles simply as an aperitif… Our wines, happily hold their own as part of the main attraction or dessert. If you’d like some inspiration, take a look at this article from the archives… The Thirsty Work lunch.
• Save room for tea – We’re talking afternoon tea, with savouries, delightful sandwiches, scones and not forgetting the star of the show… No.1 Cuvee!
• Host a sparkling soiree – A relaxed evening get together over the holiday weekend is a perfect way to enjoy the company of great friends. Keep it simple, just a few canapes, so you can enjoy the company, conversation and of course first-class fizz!
• A decadent dinner – Whether it’s an intimate dinner for two or a larger gathering, bubbles will always delight! For a truly spectacular evening, don’t be reserved, but do drink Reserve!

In the UK? Order your wines from Amathus, or if you’re in New Zealand buy online.

You’ll find that at No.1 Family Estate we are among the first winemakers in Marlborough to declare Harvest Time! That’s because we need a higher acidity and lower sugar levels to make a perfect sparkling base. We always aim to pick our grapes at around 19 brix. In previous years the grapes have reached this level as early as 28th February, and as late as 29th March, but for 2018 the sugar/acid balance was (as Goldilocks would say) just right during the first week in March.

Three grape varieties are used to craft No.1 Family Estate wines, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay. Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier are usually the faster ripening varieties, and therefore the first to be harvested.  However, this year our Clone 95 Chardonnay was, for the first time ever, at optimal ripeness before the Pinot. Something magical could come from this!

It takes many man hours to complete harvest, we hand-harvest eight tonnes (two press loads) each day until we’re done. Hand-harvesting takes longer than machine harvesting, but when you’re making wine the Methode Traditionelle way you harvest grapes with the tender loving care that they have become accustomed to on the vine. This also ensures that the fruit being picked is of excellent quality. A further consequence of hand-harvesting is that the marc (grape stalks) help create a juice channel. This allows the juice to run without picking up bitter compounds that are found in the seeds and skins.

Contrary to popular belief, for us, day and night time temperatures throughout the season have more of an influence on a vintage than a weather event leading up to it. Hot days and cold nights give us the best results as the grapes ripen whilst maintaining good acidity.

It will be a little while before you’ll be able to enjoy the fruits of our 2018 labour… Our 2018 base wine will be bottled in October 2018, it will then spend two years in the bottle before being disgorged so you can expect to buy the 2018 vintage Christmas 2020. Now that’s something to look forward to! In the meantime, you can enjoy other vintages… Shop our wine HERE, or order your wines from Amathus Drinks in the U.K.

It’s that time of year again! Just three weeks until Valentine’s Day, so we wanted to remind you how easy it is to let us play Cupid and spoil your No.1 love with bubbles this year.

• If you’re in the throes of a new romance, why not gift a bottle of No. 1 Assemblé? Just like your love it’s fresh and inviting with sophisticated characters and intense flavours.
• For those of you who like to celebrate love with a classic wine, choose No. 1 Cuvée. One of New Zealand's most highly regarded Méthode Traditionelle wines. You can also gift twice as much love this year with a beautifully packaged “Two of One” gift box.
• For your vintage love, choose a vintage Méthode Traditionelle. Cuvée Virginie is blended from 80% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Noir. This wine was also a recent Gold Medal winner at the Romeo Bragato Wine Awards.
• And for the man in your life, we’d recommend No.1 Reserve, as individual as the person you are gifting it to, each bottle is individually hand numbered and hand labelled.

We’re so thrilled to play Cupid we’re even running a Facebook promotion at the moment. It’s easy to enter! Simply LIKE US then enter the draw on our Facebook Page and you could win a $150 Voucher from your choice of six fabulous restaurants.

• Oyster & Chop – Auckland
• Ortega Fish Shack & Bar – Wellington
• Scotch Wine Bar – Blenheim
• Urban Oyster Bar & Eatery – Nelson
• Roots Restaurant – Christchurch
• Ivy & Lola’s Kitchen & Bar – Queenstown

Enter HERE. Good Luck!

New Zealand’s best and longest-running wine and food festival, The Marlborough Wine & Food Festival is just a few short weeks away.

We’re proud of our longstanding history with this iconic Marlborough event, in fact, we were involved in the very first Marlborough Wine & Food Festival in the 1980s, at the request of Ernie Hunter.

Since then we have continued to put the fizz into the festival, with regular attendance and themed stands from Putting on the Ritz to a stand that marked the bicentennial of the French Revolution, guillotine and all!

The Marlborough Wine & Food Festival is as much part of a Marlborough summer, as ripening vines, dry sunny days, evening strolls and dining outside with close friends and family.

_{A taste of what's to come... This image was taken at Taste Auckland}

These days, the organisation of the No.1 Family Estate stand has been handed over to a new generation, with Remy and Virginie, taking over the reins. And this year we’ll have a double stand at the event where you’ll be able to enjoy our award-winning wines.

• No. 1 Assemblé
• No. 1 Cuvée
• Cuvée Virginie
• No. 1 Reserve

To celebrate this year’s festival, we’re giving away a pair of general admission tickets to one lucky winner. You can enter the competition HERE.

Christmas is a time for giving. It’s also a time when everybody likes to indulge in a little luxury and enjoy the finer things in life; that’s why a bottle of bubbles makes a perfect gift for friends, family, clients or colleagues.

Here are three reasons why you should choose No.1 Family Estate wine as a gift this Christmas season.

• When you gift bubbles, you’re gifting a memory – Everybody remembers occasions more than gifts. The recipient of your bottle of bubbles will always remember the time and place they opened it, they will likely be with friends or family, so your well-chosen gift will add to the creation of a perfect memory.
• A bottle of No.1 Family Estate wine is a gift that says ‘you deserve the best’ – When you gift a bottle of No.1 Family Estate Methode Traditionelle wine, you are gifting hand-crafted, award-winning, luxury. At No.1 Family Estate our wine is made only from grapes grown in our own vineyard in the stunning Wairau Valley in Marlborough. At the optimal time, usually in March, the grapes are hand harvested, with the tender loving care that they have become accustomed to on the vine. The art of blending is the true craft of a master champagne maker and when Daniel's skill and the science of winemaking come together a little bit of magic is created.  The combination of specialist old-world techniques, combined with new-world growing conditions is just a small part of what makes No.1 Family Estate wines so special.
• A bottle of No.1 Family Estate wine is a gift that will make every person sparkle – Within our range of wines there is a gift for everybody. Our classic No. 1 Cuvée, one of New Zealand's most highly regarded Méthode Traditionelle wines, is sure to delight. No. 1 Assemblé is fresh and inviting with sophisticated and typical characters and intense flavours. And the recent recipient of an Air New Zealand Wine Awards Gold Medal, No.1 Reserve, is as individual as the person you are gifting it to, each bottle is individually hand numbered and hand labelled.

Shop our wine HERE, or order your wines from Amathus in the U.K.

Christmas is a perfect time to celebrate the joy of being with family and friends; and nothing marks an occasion like a glass of bubbles… That said, those of you who know us, will also be aware that at No.1 Family Estate we don’t think that bubbles should be reserved solely for special occasions. Neither, do we believe that your glass of sparkling wine should be reserved simply as an aperitif, indeed all of our wines are food pairing champions… So, with that in mind, we thought we’d share three ways to enjoy No.1 Family Estate wines throughout your Christmas Day celebrations.

A bubbly brunch - Whilst we love a long lunch, we’re also up for any excuse to get the family gathering started early, so why not plan a delicious brunch with scrambled eggs, smoked salmon, bagels and don’t forget the bubbles! We suggest No.1 Assemblé.

A light lunch – A delicious seafood platter is always a crowd pleaser. For smaller gatherings, oysters and No.1 Cuvée are a match made in heaven! We recommend that you serve them “Au Naturel”, the flavour of the oyster is so delicate that they are best served chilled with a squeeze of lemon, a grind of black pepper and a little brown bread.

A decadent dinner – If you’re cooking a traditional Christmas dinner of roast turkey and trimmings, then look no further than the intensely flavoured No.1 Reserve. The subtle smokiness of freshly sliced roast turkey will pair beautifully with the wine’s complex biscuity notes.

However, you choose to enjoy your Christmas Day bubbles, we wish you all the joy of the season and a bon appétit! Buy your wine HERE. Or order your wines from Amathus in the U.K.