Countertop ceramic, quartz or natural stone

We are currently pondering which countertop to choose. The options are ceramic, quartz, and natural stone. The kitchen will be matte white and handleless. The countertop should also be rather matte and relatively resistant (able to withstand a glass of red wine now and then) and not absorb liquids immediately or get stains...
We have been given the following prices:

[*]Ceramic approx. €500/sqm with very expensive cutouts
[*]Quartz approx. €400/sqm
[*]Natural stone approx. €400/sqm (depending on the stone)

About 4.5 sqm are needed.
What do you have? What can you recommend and why?

The kitchen will be matte white and handleless. The countertop should also be rather matte and relatively resistant (able to withstand a glass of red wine now and then) and not absorb liquids immediately, nor get stains...

In my opinion, that would be a plate made of stainless steel (hot rolled), but the material is (still) not listed in your enumeration. Have you not discovered it yet or have you explicitly excluded it?

Why not solid wood? That also fits your requirements.

Hm, it's an idea, but that would be too much wood for us. It's an open living, dining, and kitchen area with continuous oak parquet in a ship deck pattern.

Parquet in the kitchen? Oh dear To avoid even more oh dear moments, I would remove natural stone from the list of options. It absorbs liquids, develops stains and marks. There are impregnations, but I wouldn’t associate the "good" ones with food.

The basic rule for natural stone is: Anything containing lime and/or porous can only be used to meet your requirements with chemical sealants. In my personal opinion, it has no place where food is processed.

Therefore, you should avoid all marbles, sandstones, and slates.

Real granites can still be used, but there are differences here as well.

For granite or quartzite, I would recommend you go by the desired look and simply expose an unsealed(!) sample piece of the material to coffee, tea, wine, and especially acids (vinegar, lemon) for 24 hours. Whatever still looks like before should meet your standards.

For ceramics, choose what you like and can afford. The prices are high, but so is the quality.

Some manufacturers also offer countertops in their fine stoneware range; this is also expensive but would also meet your requirements.

I do like stainless steel, but on matte white, it looks forbidden.

I wouldn’t take a matte countertop with a matte front anyway because contrasts can achieve beautiful effects. Besides, I find polished easier to care for. But that is my personal taste.

I find parquet in the kitchen bold, but it works.

The idea that a natural wood countertop could be "too much" wood is, in my opinion, only true if it is very similar or even the same wood as the floor.

Smoked woods or walnut (dark), maple (light), or ash (grayish) can be carefully selected to create excellent contrasts with oak parquet. Possibly bamboo could also work, very durable and not so expensive.