""It is remarkable that in just a decade, [New Zealand's] Greystone has become one of the best wine producers in the county."- Raymond Chan Fans of the wines of New Zealand need to be all over Greystone. This Chardonnay - barrel fermented with wild yeasts and matured in oak for over 10 months - blew us away. It's so plush, so aromatic and so deeply complex that you just want to spend all day luxuriating with it. Passionfruit, peach, pink grapefruit, pineapple, pear, kiwi, butterscotch, roasted cashews, coconut cream, sweetcorn, honeysuckle, fennel, gingerbread and a squeeze of lime; just wow! As Master of Wine Bob Campbell put it:"So approachable now it's hard to imagine it getting any better, but that's an exciting possibility."Do not miss out on this one. Established in 2004, Greystone organically farm 33 hectares of vineyards in the Waipara Valley, North Canterbury. Once an old sheep farm, the rolling Omihi hills have limestone soils filled with fossils, seashells and pebbles, inspiring the name Greystone. As well as being a member of Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand and being certified organic by BioGro, this is a winery on the very cutting edge of terroir-driven wines. For some of their wines, they take the fermentation outside into the vineyard, exposing them to the elements and wild yeasts on the vines. You don't get much more natural than that. No herbicides, insecticides or systemic fungicides are used at all, just organic methods and biodynamic soil management. Although we wouldn't go as far as to describe them as vegan friendly because biodynamic farming does require some unusual uses of animal bits, their wines are bottled without fining or filtration, so animal products aren't used in the winemaking process. Their innovative and labour-intensive approach has yielded multiple trophies from Decanter Magazine, and in 2018 they were named Winery of the Year by respected New Zealand wine critic Raymond Chan and Winemaker of the Year by Gourmet Traveller Wine.£4 per 100.00ml