Sometimes its difficult to say how a new wine region becomes" hot ". maybe it has to do with wine writers, or passionate importers and then maybe its the young winemakers who start out in these unfashionable locations full of energy and belief.

What ever the cause may be, these next few places that i will describe today and the following weeks, has it. But because the whole wine world hasn't discovered them yet, these upstarts offer great value.

1. The douro valley, Portugal. it may seem funny to call the Douro valley as an upcoming region. The douro was the first officially demarcated wine region in the world, their boundaries were set way back in 1756. it is also most famously known as the home of port.

However, in the past decade the reds of the Douro have gained popularity. this makes a lot of sense, the regions vineyards terraced steeply above the banks of the river Duoro, their vines straining to eek out an existance in the rocky schist, can produce sublime table wine as easily as they do port.

Most of the Duoro reds you will see are blends of different mostly Portugese varieties. Principal among them would be the low yielding but impressive Touriga nacional, with its floral aromatics and juicy blackberry flavours. While the duoro climate is harsh with the locals saying " nine months of winter and three months of hell " it helps develope wines of firm structure and oodles of depth.

A good pairing for these wines would be grilled sardines, dorado or any strong flavoured fish.

Cotes de Castillon
As Bordeaux prices continue to rise, the search for good affordable Bordeaux keeps getting more difficult doesn't it ? But I wonder how can it be so hard? After all, the region has more than quarter million acres of vines being farmed by over 13000 grape growers. There must be some of them that makes amazing wines at reasonable prices-right?

And the answer is yes, the place to look for is Cotes de Castillon. Sitting on the right bank of the Dordogne, close to the more famous St. Emillon. This is a land of rolling hills and gentle valleys, a generally peacefull place if you can ignore the bloody battle of Castillon, back in 1453 which ended the hundred year war. These days the land is covered mostly in Merlot vines.

Almost all the wines from the Cotes de Castillon are blends, with Merlot the dominant varietal. And while the wines have been reputed to be rustic and aggressively tannic. In the past ten years , thanks to he influx of some extremely talented and well known Bordeaux producers, they have exchanged that hard edge for some polish and grace.

A  good Bordeaux always begs for lam in my book, such as braised lamb shank.

Mention Austria today and most people will say Arnold Swarzenegger, or it would be the reputation of the people being a tad dour, a pity really because Vienna back in the 1900's was pretty much Europe's party central. While their white wines such as Gruner Veltliner and Rieslings, are the latest darlings of high end restaurants, you probably don't think of Austrian reds as well. Actually, people don't think of them full stop.

This is a shame as Austria produces a lot of red wine, some of it pretty good. For the best, look to Burgenland, the second largest wine area in Austria( the largest is Niederosterreich ) South of Vienna along the Hungary border, Burgenland is divided into four subregions- Neusiedlersee, Neusiedlersee-hugelland, Mittelburgenland and Sudburgenland- which you should find on the bottles label.

But don't worry about remembering all that; all you have to remember is Zweigelt, the most significant grape in Burgenland. It somehow produces dense dark wines that manages to come across pleasantly weightless. The flavour is that of cherry, with a touch of black pepper and liquorice. While some of these are expensive, there are a couple of appealing ones at very reasonable prices.

Good pairing would be roast pork with apple sauce or chicken.

Sicily

The land of the godfather has always held a lot promise for its wines, with luscious fruit that seems like it would develope into a wine of balance and finesse. Yet, it always dissapoints me no matter how many bottle I have tried untill I stop trying to drink them on their own and drank them only with food. Although, I believe that it the past the wineries have been guilty of being erratic.

These days there is more control. in the past decade, there has been many new wineries that are turning sicilian wine making around, mainly by paying more attention to practices in the vineyards, such as pruning more effectively, limiting yields and using sorting tables to improve grape selection. While many of these wineries have made a name for themselves with foreign varietals such as cabernet sauvignon and merlot, Nero d'aviola is always and will forever be the king of the island.At its best when grown in the warm dry parts of Sicily that experience dramatic shifts between day and night time temparatures, the Nero d'Aviola grape says Mediterranean in every which way, with its rich, ripe black cherry flavour, often enhance by a touch of earthy spice and its sun warmed texture.