Sipping a glass of local wine might not be what comes to mind when you visit Scandinavia, but this cooler, northern region is emerging as a new wine frontier.

Hundreds of commercial vineyards are now spread across Denmark, Sweden, and even Norway, as the first generation of professional winemakers transformed what was once a niche hobby into a small but successful business.

North of France's Bordeaux or California's Napa Valley, more than 10,000 vines grow on a hillside in New Zealand, Denmark's largest island.

"People have discovered that it is really possible to grow wine in Denmark, so new people are coming, year after year," says Nina Fink, as she shows the BBC the house her three-hectare (seven-acre) farm, Vejrhøj Vingård.

Nina and her husband Niels started their business 13 years ago, after retiring from industrial jobs in Copenhagen. They mainly grow green grapes, producing floral white wines, as well as sparkling and rosé.

"We have longer summer days with more sunlight than you have in France or Italy, so the conditions are different," she explains.

For most Nordic vineyards, the grape of choice is solaris - a fragrant, hybrid variety that is well adapted to cooler climates, ripens easily, and more resistant to disease, allowing vineyards to avoid spraying pesticides.

The grape was first bred in Germany in 1975, but was only adopted in Scandinavia from 2004, after which winemaking began.

Niels Fink says that people are very surprised when they taste Vejrhøj Vingård wine. "There's a little twinkle in their eye, then comes this half-smile," he exclaims. "People like it."

The Finks sell their bottles directly from the winery, but they also supply some of Copenhagen's top restaurants, including the three Michelin star Geranium.

At first they only made 4,000 bottles per year, but now they sell 20,000. "We are limited by the supply we can offer," Mr. Fink said.

Commercial vineyards in Denmark and Sweden have only been allowed under European Union regulations since 2000. Grapes picked up around 2010, seeing a shift from amateur growers to more ambitious production .

Curiosity, and the fact that "it is possible", has attracted wine entrepreneurs, explains Jean Becker, from the Danish Wine Association.

"I was one of those who started in the year 2000. We were six growers," said Mr. Becker, standing in his vineyard 25km (15 miles) north of Copenhagen.

There are now 150 commercial wineries in Denmark with a combined 125 hectares of grapes, as well as over 1,000 hobby growers.

Meanwhile, Sweden has 47 commercial operators over 193 hectares, according to the Swedish Wine Association, and the largest has 125,000 vines.

"I started with 500 vines," said Jean Becker, "Today, new vines start with 15,000-25,000. They start in a larger scale. Is there a market for it ? The answer is yes."

But it is still an industry in its infancy, compared to the 800,000 hectares that are cultivated in France, and almost a million hectares in Spain.

In southern New Zealand, Jesper Rye Jensen, who runs Vesterhave Vingaard, produces red wine from varieties such as pinot noir and merlot, usually associated with France.

"It's very challenging because it's new to us," he says. "We have to learn. It's not like southern Europe, where they had generation after generation."

Data shows that both Denmark and Sweden have seen average temperatures rise by almost two degrees celsius over the last 40-50 years, leading to milder winters and a longer fruit growing season. But there is still a risk of frost damage.

Jesper Rye Jensen says climate change is working in his favor as a northern wine producer. "Our wine growers in Denmark are happy that we are getting a bit better weather. "

But Niels Fink believes that the warming climate is a double-edged sword. "Climate change is accompanied by all kinds of evils, such as more severe weather phenomena, long droughts, heavy rains. That is as dangerous here as it is in other places."

However, Professor Torben Bo Toldam-Andersen, a fruit science researcher from the University of Copenhagen, says that rather than a longer growing season, it is new, hardier grapes that have started big on the rise of Scandinavian wineries. "Climate change is making it easier for sure, but the new crops are the main driver."

He leads a program called "FastGrapes", which tests grape varieties to find the strongest and most suitable for northern Europe.

They are selected based on how quickly their grapes ripen, and how resistant they are to pests, diseases and other environmental stresses. Then new seedlings can be grown at a higher level.

"So many things go into the perfect wine," says the researcher. "Part of that research happens in the lab... you see the genes that make it strong. "

The first selected grapes are now growing in 15 test centers, across Scandinavia, Lithuania, northern Germany and Belgium.

But even with the best possible grape varieties and the warmer weather, Scandinavian wineries face a number of challenges, such as high labor costs and strict regulations on the use of chemical treatments to deal with any disease in the vineyards .

Romain Chichery says it can also be difficult for wineries to find workers. Born and raised in France, he moved to Sweden shortly after completing his studies in winemaking and viticulture.

Now 27, the winemaker works at Thora Vineyard on the country's southwestern Bjäre peninsula. "We have to train workers, or we have to bring them from outside (the country)," he says.

But "starting from scratch" in Sweden, he says he has the freedom to experiment.

Thora's owner, American expat Heather Öberg says it's worth all the effort and expense. "We can compete with other European wines," she said.

However, homemade Scandinavian wine currently makes up only a fraction of the consumer market, and bottles are expensive. Danish wine in Denmark costs from 200 kroner ($27; £22) a bottle upwards, more than twice the price of the cheapest imports in France and Spain. Only a small amount is produced.

"We will never be able to compete with France, Italy and Spain because they have very low prices," said Mr Becker.

At his wine shop in central Copenhagen, Vino Fino, owner Nicolai Christiansen usually sells French wine. But he says he has recently sold a case of Danish wine to a bar owner in France.

"If you can sell it to a Frenchman, you can probably sell it to everybody," he jokes.

However, he is yet to be convinced of Danish wine. "Danish wine is still too expensive," he says. "It's coming up. but I still think there is some way to go before the quality is there."