Stone Love, or how to choose your kitchen worktop

Apologies for the silence - a post seems to have gone missing somewhere. Kitchen worktop choice is fairly wide and the options seem to be as follows. Laminate - cheap but is there a place for it in a splendid new-build?? At the other end of the price scale Corian - moulded sexily to fit and include the sink etc but apparently not terribly heat resistant, and very expensive. Various cheaper Corian-alikes. Granite, somewhere in the middle price-wise. Quartz which is a tough resin composite. We thought we'd go for Quartz which very stainproof (red wine may be a particular issue in our household, although not much actually gets away!) But then.... we went and looked at the local granite suppliers and both fell head over heels in love with Ivory Fantasy granite. It has a large-scale swirly grain and is more an artwork than a worktop. Now we just have to choose the kitchen cabinet colours to match!