The Opposites Attract idea came from some simple truths. Burgundy is home to the world’s greatest wines made from the Chardonnay grape. At almost the exact antipode of Burgundy sit the Chardonnay vineyards of New Zealand. This famous white grape grows no further away from its spiritual homeland than in New Zealand.
To make the story even more interesting, sitting within New Zealand there are Chardonnay vines growing on rare soils that are geologically similar to the mid-slopes of the Côte d’Or, where some of the greatest Chardonnay wines are made. In New Zealand’s sunny, maritime and at times cool climate, some have made analogies that wine from these vineyards show a close similarity to the white wines of Burgundy. Opposites Attract.
The comparative tastings were repeated in Christchurch, London and Burgundy over nine weeks from 20 July to 14 September 2026. The wines were assessed by 43 people that represent some of the finest palates in the world from New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Norway, USA, Denmark and Spain. There were 13 Masters of Wine, four Master Sommeliers, and buyers from some of Australasia’s and Europe’s most respected fine wine merchants.
Prior to the tasting we were all giving a comprehensive guide written by Steve Smith, vigneron Aotearoa New Zealand Fine Wine Estate, entitled “For the lover of fine white Burgundy, does Chardonnay from the geographical opposite, attract?”
Opposites Attract London tasting, September 14
Smith states that Chardonnay is the greatest white grape in the world, and questions who can achieve the best with this grape in the future, bearing in mind climate change. He highlights the “Bright Light and Big Ocean’ that give New Zealand an advantage, and then his pursuit to find the absolute best plots in New Zealand to grow world class Chardonnay.
This guide is 96 pages long, but I hope the first paragraph gives an idea of the concept and Smith’s thought process:
“At almost exact opposite points on Earth, there exist ancient geological formations that share common ground. While the geomorphologies of eastern France and New Zealand are quite different, their tectonic beginnings are remarkably similar. Both evolved through fold-mountain orogeny and subduction, where sedimentary calcium-rich marine deposits were thrust upwards to form the limestone-based European Alps and Greywacke backbone of New Zealand. Rendzina topsoils developed after millions of years of erosion and evolution. And within a small bandwidth of latitude, gentle limestone slopes tilted towards the morning sun, offering the perfect aspect for growing and making fine Chardonnay.”
Steve Smith at the London Opposites Attract tasting
Smith pays tribute to Mike Weersing and Claudia Elze Weersing who planted the Pyramid Valley site in 2000, which he bought along with Brian Seth in 2017, having long admired their vision in planting at this site.
The wines were tasted blind in groups of 5 or 7 wines; ‘Everyday Deliciousness’, ‘Cool and Refreshing’, Singularity and Special Occasions’ and ‘Rare and Definitive’.
The real highlight for Smith & Sheth was the performance of Les Graviers, its new limited production wine made from heirloom selections of Chardonnay planted at Omahu, their Gimblett Gravels vineyard. These originated from cuttings brought into California from Meursault in 1882 that subsequently made their way to New Zealand in the mid-1970s, and a cutting personally selected and imported by Steve Smith MW in 1995 from a single vine in the famous Le Montrachet vineyard. A wine from this combination of heirloom clones has never been made, anywhere in the world.
Les Graviers (not to be confused with Benedicte and Stephane Tissot's Chardonnay of the same name) was tasted alongside four of Burgundy’s most revered and expensive wines from the 2023 vintage. Across all 24 wines and all three locations, it had the highest combined score of any wine in the tastings. It was the outright winner in London, placed second in Burgundy by just 0.1 of a point and third in Christchurch. Across all 24 wines and all three locations combined, Les Graviers achieved the highest overall score of the tastings. A spectacular result.
Huw Kinch, Pyramid Valley winemaker
In the “Cool and Refreshing” flight, Pyramid Valley Low Burn Chardonnay was the clear flight leader in all three tastings – the only wine to do this – with Pyramid Valley North Canterbury Chardonnay second. Together, they outranked three significantly more expensive grand cru Chablis.
Across wines spanning quality classifications from village to premier cru and grand cru, and vineyards from Burgundy to Hawke’s Bay, North Canterbury and Central Otago, the results provide a ringing, independent endorsement of Pyramid Valley and Smith & Sheth’s potential to make fine Chardonnay.
In the blind tastings, 58% of tasters identified the Smith & Sheth wines as Burgundy, while 46% identified the Pyramid Valley wines as Burgundy.
After the tasting I delved deeper with Smith into the story of Les Graviers and here are his words; “probably one of the most exciting wines that I've seen over 40 years for me and with no idea or expectation that it would end up like this. Probably even more of a statement is 2025 and 2026 that follow a very similar path. It's all very well making something extraordinary once, but for a parcel to repeat the story now that is the special thing. This is from our Omahu Vineyard which is on the west side of SH50, so just in the leigh of Roys Hill bordering Craggy's Gimblett Gravels Vineyard”.
When will Smith & Sheth Les Graviers be released and what’s the price as you did not list it in the post tasting notes?
“Release mid May 2027, price – we are not sure yet but when you get one of the world’s most respected wine merchants suggest to me it should be by far NZ's most expensive wine when I tasted it with him last week then we keep re-looking at it closely. Only 300 bottles made in 2024 so very rare but we will make sure there is some allocation to London, our most important fine wine market. My guess is it will be about £325 a bottle. In the future we have about 3500 vines at Omahu coming into production, about 0.5ha. so that should mean we can get to about 2000 bottles in the future. As we can see from the wine it is the heritage of the clones (sourced from a secret plot in Burgundy – legally) that is more impactful than old vines, although the idea that I want to be making wines from these vines when they are old will give me motivation for a long life.”
Tell me about your team in New Zealand
“With Warren Gibson for Smith & Sheth and Huw Kinch at Pyramid Valley I have two exceptional winemakers with a lot of experience with the white Burgundy mode of Chardonnay and what needs to go into composing that in the winery. If you like Pyramid Valley are Huw's wine and Smith & Sheth are mine but the three of us together gives us a huge amount of experience, insight, creativity and intellect to call on as we need it for every wine. In my view that is really powerful and I think we saw that on Monday”.
The wines that were tasted blind
The Opposites Attract flights in detail
I have listed ‘my score’ and the region I thought the wines came from. Having tried many of these New Zealand wines before I did have an unfair advantage to naming the origin of each wine blind, which are reflected in my choices.
Flight One: Everyday Deliciousness
2024 Pyramid Valley Kereru Road, Hawkes Bay 2024 £35.00
Bright racy herbaceous pink grapefruit, apricots, thyme, clean cut and focused. This was clearly New Zealand.
My Score; 92/100
Verget Macon-Bussieres Vigne de Montbrison 2023 £55.00
Deep concentration with toasty notes, ripe stone fruit, evolves well in the glass softening slightly, layers of texture. My guess on this was Burgundy.
My Score; 90/100
Smith & Sheth Cru Heretaunga, Hawkes Bay 2024 £40.00
Focused, with great purity, linear, beautiful wine, white stone fruit, clean cut notes, essence of ripe nectarines, hint of nutty spice. This was definitely New Zealand for me.
My Score; 94/100
Domaine Jacques Carillon Puligny Montrachet Village 2023 £70.00
Bruised apples, spiced, nutty, marzipan, perfumed, intense to start but opens up in glass. Classic Burgundy.
My Score; 91/100
Domaine Henri German Meursault Village, 2023 £60.00
Full flavoured, pineapple and white cobb nuts, luxurious, plenty of depth, white stone fruit, love this style, opulent and a definitive Burgundian for me.
My Score 96/100
Flight Two: Cool and Refreshing
Louis Jadot Les Clos, Chablis 2023 £105.00
Zippy fresh, focused, clean cut and vibrant, lovely balance, focus and minerality. I guessed this incorrectly as New Zealand.
My Score 92/100
Pyramid Valley North Canterbury 2024 £40.00
Textured and very Chablis Grand Cru style, hint of pineapple with clean cut precision, lovey bright linear notes, real class wine with a perfect focus and linear feel. This too me was a classic great Chablis, but it turned out to be New Zealand.
My Score; 95/100
Domaine Moreau-Naudet Valmur Grand Cru Chablis 2023 £90.00
Restrained, a touch lacklustre, closed, noted as Burgundy, and not at its best.
My Score; 88/100
Pyramid Valley Low Burn, Central Otago 2024 £45.00
Luscious and full of excitement. Lovely purity and vision, sunshine in a glass, beautiful, exceptional quality, layers of precise stone fruit and complexity whilst still holding that freshness. Star wine, had to be New Zealand with its purity and precision.
My Score; 96/100.
Domaine William Fevre Les Preuses, Chablis 2023 £110.00
Nutty and restrained, elegant and evolves on the palate, very refined and classic Chablis style, classy was clearly a top Chablis for me, which needs a few years to evolve and shine.
My Score; 93/100
Flight Three: Singularity and Special Occasions
Domaine Jacques Carillon Les Referts 1er Puligny Montrachet 2023 £205.00
Nutty and textured, classic Burgundy, lovely delicate refined style oozing with charm, white nectarine, flinty and evolving. Easy to name this as Burgundy.
My Score; 94/100.
Smith & Sheth Howell, Bridge Pa, Hawkes Bay 2024 £65.00
Delicate, refined, pure class with white nectarines, white peaches, clean cut, that mineral edge, poised, pretty perfect. Great precision and purity. Loved this wine and called it correctly as New Zealand.
My Score; 96/100.
Jean-Claude Boisset Morgeot 1er Cru Chassagne-Montrachet 2023 £100.00
Textured, complex and layered, clean cut with notes of tangerine, perfume, violets, rose buds, wild herbs and a touch funky. As it evolved in the glass it became clearer and more focused leaning me towards thinking it was from New Zealand incorrectly. A fine wine.
My Score; 94/100
Smith & Sheth Onewa, Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay 2024 £65.00
Refined, elegant, gentle focus, clean cut stone fruit, refreshing but textured, classy and for me I went for Burgundy. Another great wine especially now seeing the price.
My Score; 94/100
Smith & Sheth Quinn Mangatahi, Hawkes Bay 2024 £65.00
Gentle perfume, juicy, essence of pineapple, fresh and vibrant, creamy, marzipan, spiced, herbaceous, floral, textured, nutty spice, taste like a fine Burgundy but I went for New Zealand, outstanding fine wine.
My Score; 95/100
Domaine Guffens-Heyman, Saint-Veran Clos de Poncetys 2023 £155.00
Big open nose, first to have that struck/match note, pink grapefruit, pineapple essence, classic old school Burgundy, great wine if you like this richer full-bodied style.
My Score; 96/100
Domaine Henri-Germain Charmes 1er Cru Meursault 2023 £150.00
Focused, linear, delicate perfume, white nectarines, pure, clean cut, “very Burgundian in feel” my notes said but I opted incorrectly for New Zealand. A fine wine that would benefit from a year or two more in the cellar.
My Score; 94/100
Flight Four - Rare and Definitive
Pyramid Valley Lion’s Tooth, Waikato, North Canterbury 2024 £95.00
Juicy, fresh and flamboyant – pure class, white stone, essence of nectarines, yuzu, with layer and layer of texture, fruit and purity – real class – needs another 12 months to evolve fully, definitely New Zealand for me, although I had tried this wine before.
My Score; 95/100
Domaine Francois Raveneau Butteaux 1er Cru 2023 £380.00
Nutty, focused, lime curd, youthful but has that precision and sheer class, wow beautiful wine, my mind was uncertain here, but went with Burgundy. This is a serious wine showing such quality.
My Score: 95/100
Domaine Leflaive Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru 2023 £990.00
This was a taut pristine wine that needed time, it evolved gently in the glass hinting at greatness, but needed time, a definitive top Burgundy for me.
My Score: 94/100
Domaine Henri Boillot Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru 2023 £300.00
Textured, refined and very elegant, loved the purity, especially the layers of pristine white stone fruit and gentle precision, all the hallmarks of one of Smith’s great New Zealand wines but alas I was wrong, and it was a beautiful Burgundy.
My Score; 95/100
Pyramid Valley Field of Fire, Waikari, North Canterbury 2024 £95.00
Fresh with chunky vibrant notes, touch of tinned fruit cocktail and a glow of tropical notes. As it evolves the fruit becomes more luscious, with mango, nectarines, and peaches in harmony. Very much a Burgundy for me but this was New Zealand.
My Score; 93/100
Smith & Sheth Les Graviers, Gimblett Gravels 2024 £N/A
Star wine of the tasting with 80% of the London panel naming it as their top wine and from Burgundy, oh ye of little faith! I was confident enough that Smith’s top wine would be the star attraction. Refined class, white stone fruit, layers and layers of complexity, bright, pure, touch of tropical nuance, a superstar wine, tiny production, which will be released next Spring.
My Score 96/100
Domaine des Comtes Lafon Clos de la Barre Meursault 2023 £310.00
Refined and elegant, a touch closed but a great wine, wet stone, flint, restrained elegant stone fruit, nectarines and a nutty complexity, a wine that needs time, clearly a Burgundy for me.
My Score; 94/100
