As I sit here watching snowflakes fall, a rarity in the California wine country where we are based, our Southern Hemisphere brethren are only weeks away from harvesting this year’s liquid gold. While a few of their wines are known outside their native regions, many more have not yet garnered the attention they deserve. Australian wines, little known 15 years ago, are now readily available in the U.S. Chile is a second home to many of California’s premier winegrowers, Argentina is expanding its already prodigious production (fifth largest wine producer on earth) and South Africa’s Cape Winelands produce intensely flavorful, affordable wines that are often barely known outside their region.

This month we intend to do our part to change all that and arouse the senses as we focus on the delightful, yet under-appreciated, wines of the Southern Hemisphere.

While South African wines are familiar and well regarded in England and her environs, they are relatively unknown in the U.S. This is quite a disservice to the many small vintners that inhabit the Cape Province Winelands, South Africa’s wine producing region. Remarkable wines at reasonable prices from vineyards set amid stunning scenery, and gastronomical delights are what you will experience when you travel with our Pick of the Month, Cape Wineland Tours.

Providing tours exclusively to this spectacular region, Cape Winelands Tours highlights the premier wineries and the best restaurants available. Offering four distinct experiences, including its signature Wine Lovers Tour and Harvest Tour, visitors learn from Cape Wineland Tours. about the land and history of this developing wine producing region. For a fascinating introduction to the area’s long history of viticulture, read Lisa Hough’s Wine: The BEST reason to travel to South Africa.

Across the Atlantic, due west from the Cape of Good Hope, you’ll find Argentina, our second stop on this round-the-world wine adventure. Argentina is a lesser known wine producer than its neighbor, Chile, but both countries are fast becoming players on the international wine stage. Maxim Tours, Ltd. offers custom itineraries to both of these countries’ wine-producing regions. Memorable Wines at the “Bottom of the World” will open your eyes to the possibilities offered by our neighbors to the south. With many of California’s best known producers looking to Chile for supplies of well-made cabernets and chardonnays during North America’s winter months, there promises to be even more memorable wines coming north in the years to come.

Following the sun even further west, we hit a new day and even more wonderful wines. Brilliant Tours of New Zealand offers both scheduled tours and personalized touring itineraries to both North and South Islands, including this month’s World Heritage Site, Fiordland National Park. Although Brilliant Tours does not have scheduled wine tours, they are very knowledgeable about the areas wine regions and work with a number of companies that do specialize in wine tours.

For those oenophiles with a taste for Australian wines, there are well respected wineries in the New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. Hunter Valley, just north of Sydney, the Yarra Valley, a day trip from Melbourne, and the Claire and Barossa valleys near Adelaide are prime wine regions, each with a specific focus. Barossa Experience Tours offers organized and private day tours of the Barossa Valley and nearby Claire Valley. With more than 50 wineries in the Barossa Valley, and many more in Claire Valley and the Adelaide Hills, Barossa Experiences Tours can assist with wine trips throughout South Australia.

Undoubtedly there are many more wonderful regions for the roving oenophiles to explore. We hope we’ve whetted your appetite to look for new vines and wonderful wines in unusual places.