Search off the beaten path to stretch your wine budget

To stretch your wine dollars, look to traditionally lesser-known regions.

Wines from southern France long have lived in the shadow of their more famous cousins, Bordeaux and Burgundy. Cotes-du-Rhone (syrah, Grenache) and Cote du Ventoux (syrah, Grenache) in the southeast are perennial value standards, but Cahors (malbec) in the southwest often is a nice surprise.

For Italy, the action mostly is in the south, especially Abruzzo, Molise, Puglia and Sicily.

The most interesting wines are made from indigenous red grapes, including montepulciano, negroamaro, primitivo, malvasia nera and nero d'avola, and white grapes such as grillo and moscato.

In Spain, the sparkling Cava from the Penedes region beats just about everyone else in the bubbly world for value.

We all know about the phenomenon that is modern Australian wine, but few of us know that good values are emerging from the small island of Tasmania.

Portugal is undergoing a renaissance in its table wines, with quality from red grapes otherwise used for Port soaring.