Where’s the most surprising place you’ve come across excellent wine?

—D.D., Surry Hills, NSW

The world of wine is full of surprises and the boundaries of viticulture are continually expanding, thanks to climate change. “Cold” countries such as England, Hungary, Switzerland, Canada, even Denmark and Sweden, are now producing some remarkably palatable wines.

I recently tasted several Hungarian wines from the Pannonhalma winery – riesling, pinot noir, even a cabernet franc/merlot blend named Infusio – and a furmint from the Balassa winery; all of them were very good.

England’s sparkling wines are quickly building a serious reputation, their ambitious makers charging prices comparable with Champagne across the Channel.

I’ve enjoyed a very decent red wine from Denmark named Nordlund, made, admittedly, from hybrid grape varieties that ripen much earlier than the Vitis vinifera (common grape vine) varieties that most wine is made from.

All things considered, red wine is harder to produce in cold climates than white or sparkling because red grapes need more heat to ripen.

But I recently tried a Swiss pinot noir, Wegelin Malanser Blauburgunder 2020, that amazed me. A pinot noir from Baden in Germany, Fritz Wassmer Spätburgunder CCL Trocken 2013, also impressed.

Japan has long been thought too cold and damp for the vinifera grapes, but the Misawa family of Grace Winery in Yamanashi prefecture is doing amazing things with chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon and merlot as well as with the indigenous grape, koshu.

Cold countries are one thing, but a colleague recently returned from Bali with the news that he’d discovered a winery there that’s making a quite respectable drop.

China is, by all reports, producing better and better wine. Penfolds has just released its first red, Penfolds 2022 Bin CWT 521, made mostly from cabernet sauvignon grown in Ningxia and Yunnan provinces (Ningxia is a very cold place where the vines have to be buried in winter to survive). It was very good.

With wine these days, we’re learning to expect the unexpected.

Got a drinks question for Huon Hooke? thefullbottle@goodweekend.com.au