Gold Medal – Champagne & Sparkling Wine World Championships 2022
Winery notes (NV)
"Cuvée No.1 was the first wine produced by No.1 Family Estate. This Chardonnay Blanc de Blancs is lees aged to encourage full yeast autolysis. The wine displays texture, finesse and charm. Typical, complex, Champagne-like characters with savoury layers of citrus and stone fruits."
5 Stars & 95/100 Stephen Wong MW, The Real Review, March 2025 (NV)
"Mid-lemon hue. This powerful, tightly wound wine is very complex with layers of fresh herbs, subtle smoke, oyster shell and steely minerality juxtaposed against generous lees development notes of cigarbox, brioche and hazelnut. The dry palate is impressively powerful and weighty yet also surprisingly elegant and light on its feet. The panoply of flavours reprises on the long, sustained finish. It has the structure and depth to continue developing complexity in bottle but is already at a delicious stage."
Joelle Thomson, drinksbiz Magazine December 2024 (NV)
"This is one of the flagship wines of No.1 Family Estate and Chardonnay and extended ageing on yeast lees marry beautifully to create a full-bodied bubbly with creamy aromas and smooth texture. (A small portion of this wine is held back each year to age longer on yeast lees and this wine then becomes the No.1 Reserve.)"
5 Stars & 94/100 Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, November 2024 (NV)
"Charming and inviting, the bouquet shows nectarine, lemon peel, oatmeal and subtle spice aromas, followed by a finely textured palate that’s beautifully flowing and lingering. Harmonious and elegant, offering fabulous drinking. 100% Chardonnay; aged on lees for 18+ months."
Rated Outstanding & 95/100 Cameron Douglas MS, November 2024 (NV)
"This has to be the perfect aperitif, the bouquet is both pure and precise, it is seductive with complexity and depth. Aromas of citrus and fresh butter brioche, the autolysis intensity increases as the wine opens out in glass, complexity and fruit spice, flower, mineral and new. As the wine touches the palate the mousse delivers a rush of flavours wrapped is a precise and bold texture, carrying with it flavours of citrus and white peach, then breadth and depth from entreillage of at least 18 months. Can you tell this is one of my favourites?"
94/100 David Walker Bell, WineFolio.co.nz, November 2024 (NV)
"A Méthode Traditionnelle wine from Marlborough. The Le Brun family first released this Blanc de Blancs expression of 100% Chardonnay sparkling in 1999, and it has been a classic of New Zealand bubbles in the 25 years since. A pale lemon-yellow colour in the glass. The bouquet has a burst of yeasty autolysis and is sufficiently complex that you’d think it came from Champagne. Lemon, green apple and quince is layered with rich, buttery brioche, and a honeysuckle floral note. A fine bead of bubbles shows off the kinetic energy coiled through the palate. Dry, zesty and so crisp – a really fine example of New Zealand (and Marlborough) sparkling. The finish is very persistent and elegant."