VETERAN New Zealand winemaker Nick Nobilo, who created White Cloud by blending Muller Thurgau with Sauvignon Blanc, had a long-held vision.

It was to create a world-class Gewurztraminer to run alongside his nation's iconic Sauvignon Blanc, Cloudy Bay.

Instead of retiring in 2000, when the family wine business was sold to Australian giant BRL Hardy, he set about realising his dream of creating an outstanding aromatic Gewurztraminer in his native New Zealand soil.

He first searched out and found the ideal "terroir" for his vines. These are eight hectares of alluvial soil which are high in magnesium and boron, with year-round sunshine at Ormond, near Gisborne, on the east-coast of the North Island.

He has called his vineyard Vinoptima, the Latin for "best wines" and it just happens to be on the same parallel as Alsace - but south of the equator. Nobilo is adamant that he is not trying to replicate those memorable aromatic aromas and rich flavours of the Alsace Gewurztraminer.

However, in much the same way as New Zealand adds its own distinctive character to Sauvignon Blanc, so Nobilo believes it will give a refreshing dimension to this difficult to spell yet easy to recognise varietal.

Once sniffed and sipped you'll never forget the exotic spicy-perfumed full-bodied, sometimes oily wine that tastes of lychees and Earl Grey tea.

The newly harvested grapes are taken immediately to the winery located at the centre of the vineyard where they are pressed and the juice allowed to settle before being fermented in stainless steel and large oval oak barrels from Germany. Then, as in Alsace, all the wine is matured in these oval tuns before bottling.

Nobilo was kind enough send me two bottles of his fist vintage 2003 vintage. My verdict: stunning. However, a word of warning... maiden vintages invariably shine out showing the shape of things to come, then the wines can sink back for a few years before all that initial promise is finally realised.

Vinoptima Gewurztraminer is most definitely a wine to follow next year, when it starts to come into our better independent wine merchants. Be prepared to pay around £16 for a bottle - the same amount as Cloudy Bay.