Spain is a hot, dry, mountainous country with more vineyard land than any other nation on earth. It ranks third in the world in wine production, after France and Italy.

Spanish wine has awakened from a long period of dormancy and underachievement. Spain is now one of the wine world’s most vibrant arenas. For decades, only Spain’s most famous red wine region, Rioja, and the classic fortified wine region are popular on wine making. Now, many other wine regions in Spain are making seriously good wines.

Cava is a Spanish sparkling wine made in the traditional method of the French sparkling wine Champagne. The success of Champagne encouraged vineyard owners to replant with white grape varieties like Macabeo, Parellada and Xarel•lo to use for sparkling wine production. These grapes are still the primary grapes of Cava today though some producers are experimenting with the use of the Champagne wine grapes of Chardonnay and Pinot noir.

Around 95% of Spain's total Cava production today is from Catalonia.

Most Spanish brandies have glittery gold accents. The brandies are deep, rich, lush and a fascinating diversion from the famed French brandies. The wine makers age their brandy though the traditional system of soleras-criad-eras (a carefully orchestrated process involving successive barrels in which younger brandies are added to older ones as they age) and a very limited production guarantees the extraordinary quality of the product.