JANE Hunter is New Zealand's first woman of wine.

She was born Jane Arnold in South Australia ,where her father had a vineyard and she went to New Zealand in 1981, to escape from wine.

There, she ran a restaurant for two years before, in 1983, becoming Montana's chief viticulturist.

She also met the charismatic Ernie Hunter, who had created his own winery, and they married the following year.

In 1986, they came to London and scooped the awards at the Sunday Times Wine Festival.

The next year Ernie was killed in a car accident. Jane's initial thoughts were to sell up and return to her roots, but she stayed and today her wines, now made by Gary Duke, stand above most produced in Marlborough, and equal or better than the much-vaunted Cloudy Bay.

I first met Jane in the early 1990s at a wine trade lunch at a restaurant stuck in the middle of a one time engineering works deep in the heart of Wednesbury, West Midlands, where I moved some powerfully perfumed lilies that were overpowering the atmosphere.

I was struck by her dedicated hands-on approach and the close attention that she paid to every detail. But above all I was astonished by the absolute beauty of her deep-scented wines with their lingering finish.

These are made from the finest fruit that she can grow on her 37 hectares of vines together with bought in grapes and juice from other farmers who meet her strict growing standards.

Winemaker's Selection Sauvignon Blanc is the Hunter's flagship; a wine based on the ripest and least herbaceous grapes with ample tropical fruit flavours and seasoned with toasty oak.

There is also an easy drinking 2003 Sauvignon (£9.99) that you'll find at Upton-upon-Severn Wines, which also has three more of Jane's beautifully balanced wines.

There is an impressive 2001 Riesling (£9.35) with sharply defined varietal characteristics and a good weight on the palate. Her classy half-barrel fermented 2000 Chardonnay (£10.30) is rich with citrus flavours and overlaid with subtle French oak.

Finally, there is her full-bodied, supple 2000 Pinot Noir (£11.99) that shows what a splendid future this grape has in Marlborough's temperate climate.

In 1993, Jane Hunter was awarded her OBE for services to New Zealand's wine industry. In 2001 she returned to London and when once again, her 2000 Sauvignon Blanc won the top award.