In spite of bumper 2008 and 2009 harvests in New Zealand, I am more optimistic about the quality of wine coming out of the North and South islands than I have been for a very long time.

I wrote in February about the worrying level of over-production of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc and propose to set that particular bandwagon to one side. Wine lovers the world over are now familiar with this very particular, pungent wine, whose price is at last softening.

What is so encouraging about New Zealand wine is that it is no longer a one trick pony. Winemaking is better than it ever has been, at a range of price levels and in a wide range of styles. Take Chardonnay. For years, with the exception of such long-standing over-performers as Kumeu River of Auckland and Neudorf of Nelson, it seemed as though Kiwi winemakers virtually ignored their second most important grape variety, but now there seems to be a real step up in the quality of New Zealand Chardonnay in general.

Most producers have various renditions of this white burgundy variety in their repertoire but Felton Road in Central Otago; Mountford and Bell Hill in Canterbury; Dog Point, Fromm, Gravitas, Seresin and Wither Hills of Marlborough; Ata Rangi of Martinborough; and Te Mata of Hawke’s Bay are now all making world class Chardonnay, with New Zealand’s trademark bright, fruity acidity.

In a recent tasting of new releases, I was also very taken by even the most modest bottling of unoaked 2008 Chardonnay from the market leader, Montana, which is on sale widely in the UK at less than £7 a bottle, and just £5.59 at Waitrose until July 21. The fruit was grown in Gisborne, the wine region on the easternmost tip of the North Island where Montana buy about 60 per cent of all the grapes grown, the majority of them Chardonnay. Admittedly in 2008 in Gisborne, in sharp contrast to Marlborough’s bloated grape harvest, the crop was shrunk by frost, which may have helped inject a little more concentration into the wine.

But my enthusiasm for this excellent performance from such a big player is muted somewhat by the news that Montana, owned by Pernod-Ricard of France, recently announced that it was cancelling its grape contracts in Gisborne. The reason? Montana maintains that despite its best efforts, the market prefers Sauvignon Blanc to Chardonnay. This is catastrophic news for Gisborne grape growers but it would seem a great shame to me if they responded by grafting over their Chardonnay to Sauvignon Blanc. Gisborne’s reputation as Chardonnay capital of New Zealand seems justified now on the basis of quality, and Gisborne’s summers can be a bit too hot to produce the sort of cut crystal Sauvignon Blanc now in fashion. Buy Gisborne Chardonnay; keep these growers afloat!

The one white wine grape that is steaming into fashion in New Zealand, as elsewhere, is Chardonnay’s more perfumed relative, Pinot Gris, and the country’s plantings have grown sixfold in the past three years but – perhaps because most of the vines are so young – Pinot Gris remains one of the white wine styles that most Kiwi winemakers have yet to conquer.

The wines typically have too little focus and fruit concentration and too much sugar, although Dry River of Martinborough with its 30-year-old Pinot Gris vines is a particularly noble exception, and Michelle Richardson’s Marlborough example is also superior. Pinot Gris/Pinot Grigio seems mysteriously to sell the world over on its name alone rather than on any intrinsic wine quality.

Much more successful is New Zealand’s performance nowadays with the country’s two other aromatic varieties (partners with Pinot Gris in Alsace too), Riesling and Gewürztraminer. New Zealand has a decent supply of mature Riesling vines and fewer winemakers seem to be relying on the crutch of residual sugar to give their wines appeal. Producers such as Pegasus Bay of Waipara, Brightwater and Greenhough of Nelson, and Framingham and Forrest in Marlborough really seem to have got the hang of Riesling and make a wide range of styles from bone dry to thrillingly and naturally sweet.

New Zealand is one of the few countries that can claim to have established its perfect spot for Gewürztraminer. Beleaguered Gisborne was producing fine Gewürztraminer in the 1970s so, even if this is very much a minority product for New Zealand, there are some old vines to draw on. Wines such as Nick Nobilo’s Vinoptima are designed to take advantage of this by showing Gewürz at its most concentrated and distinctive.

One or two rather good Viogniers are emerging from New Zealand too. Dry River’s 2008 looks very serious (to match the price), while the 2007 from the winery known as Herzog in New Zealand, or Hans Family abroad, is also impressive.

Among reds, Pinot Noir is of course New Zealand’s answer to Sauvignon Blanc, with its bright, direct, easy-to-like fruit and early drinking appeal. Fine producers of this ubiquitous cool climate variety can now be counted by the score, and to judge from vine plantings that are yet to bear fruit, Pinot Noir is set to overtake Chardonnnay as New Zealand’s second most important variety.

But one of the more palatable side effects of global warming has been the emergence of fine New Zealand reds made from varieties that ripen later than Pinot.

It used to be the case that a tasting of Kiwi reds left tasters’ teeth pristine, so under-ripe were the grapes and thin the grape skins. Now, however, New Zealand can boast a host of Cabernets and, especially, Merlots grown in Hawke’s Bay on the North Island that are so ripe that they blacken the teeth just as unappetisingly as young bordeaux. Gimblett Gravels has proved itself the Médoc, or perhaps more accurately Graves, of New Zealand.

But I am increasingly excited about the quality of NZ Syrah grown by the likes of Craggy Range, Stonecroft and Unison of Hawke’s Bay; Schubert of Wairarapa and Kennedy Point of Waiheke Island. It can be complex, savoury and much more subtle than Australian Shiraz, its cousin across the Tasman.

More columns at www.ft.com/robinson

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Favourite Chardonnays

Ata Rangi, Craighall 2008 Martinborough
Felton Road 2007 Central Otago
Kumeu River, Maté’s Vineyard 2007 Kumeu
Montana, Unoaked 2008 Gisborne
(a bargain)
Mountford 2005 Waipara
Neudorf, Moutere 2007 Nelson
Waipara Hills, Soul Of The South 2008 Waipara

NZ tasting notes on purple pages of www.jancisrobinson.com