Smith & Sheth Cru Heretaunga Albariño 2018 $28 
This is New Zealand’s version of the best of what Spain can offer, incredibly focused, pure and dry and heaving with lemon and oyster shells. Sourced from the Bridge Pa region, in their iron-rich, red gravels, the acidity is like all the cutty-grass (or pampas grass if you weren’t bought up in Hastings) in the world slicing across your tongue, and you will love the immediate shock and awe. Think pure citrus, salty sea breezes, white pepper and white peach. Texturally it’s powdery, prickly and perfect, while the finish just repeats and repeats and repeats. It’s quite possibly the greatest albariño New Zealand has produced.
