The Spanish peninsula yields to no other part of Europe in natural advantages for wine growing. With a fertile soil, an admirable geological conformation, and a climate which, aided by the proximity of great bodies of water, tends to develop the vine to a high degree of perfection, it ought to produce natural wines of the choicest quality in respect to body and bouquet; but, in consequence of primitive and faulty systems of vinification, these results are seldom attained, and the Spaniards may be said to excel chiefly in the preparation of white, dry, fortified wines, and a few sweet varieties. The culture of the vine in Spain is almost universal, but in the absence of recent trustworthy statistics the annual yield cannot be readily determined. It has been estimated as high as 660,-000,000 gallons, and as low as 300,000,000; the latter amount is doubtless more nearly correct. The principal wines of export and those most intimately associated with Spanish viticulture are the several varieties of sherry, so called from the town of Jerez de la Frontera, in Andalusia, around which lie perhaps the choicest vineyards of Spain. They form part of the wine district of Cadiz, which also includes San Lucar de Barrameda, on the banks of the estuary of the Guadalquivir; Trebujena, N. of San Lucar; and Puerto de Santa Maria, S. of Jerez, on the W. bank of the estuary of the Rio Guadalete, which forms the eastern frontier of the sherry district.

The vineyards of all qualities in the district of Cadiz cover about 24,000 acres, and yield not less than G,000,000 gallons annually, which is very little in excess of the yearly consumption of so-called sherry in England alone. Between natural sherries and the sherries of commerce, which find their principal market in Great Britain and the United States, there is an important difference. The former are generally light-colored and dry, and after the primary fermentation is complete contain an average of 26 per cent, of proof spirit naturally generated. Under this class may be mentioned the so-called vinos de pasto, or table wines, which are light, dry, spirituous, and highly flavored. The wines exported under that name exhibit these qualities in a marked degree, although more or less brandied to suit the English and American taste. But the greater part of the sherries leaving Cadiz have previously been subjected to a treatment which renders them as much a factitious product as champagne. The manufacturers generally buy much more must or wine from other growers than they produce themselves.

The juice is deposited in butts of 108 gallons each, and after the first fermentation is racked from the lees, each butt receiving from two to ton gallons of spirit, according to the quality of the wine, the inferior sorts requiring most reenforcement. The wine is subsequently flavored with a liqueur called dulce, made from the must of over-ripe grapes, the fermentation of which has been checked by the addition of over-proof spirit; and colored by an admixture of vino de color, which is simply must boiled until it is reduced to one fifth of its bulk, and has acquired the consistency of treacle. It is deep reddish brown, and has a harsh and bitter flavor. By means of this agent all the popular shades of color are given to the conventional sherries of commerce. Thus pale sherry requires but 7 gallons to the butt, the golden 15, the pale brown 20, and the rich old brown as much as 25 gallons. The choicest wines of the Cadiz district are not customarily sold or drunk, but are reserved for admixture with poorer sorts, whereby the latter, in addition to the flavoring and coloring processes they have undergone, acquire a premature character of age and ripeness. Hence the custom prevalent among manufacturers of sherry, of keeping up the so-called soleras, or stock wines.

A solera wine is described as " a fine old mother wine, which by care and attention has acquired body and character. Such wines are kept in stock in butts or double butts, and are perpetuated in the following manner: Of say 20 butts of existing ready solera wine the proprietor draws off one half for mixing with the wine about to be exported. He then fills up the voids created in his 20 butts by means of 10 butts of the finest wine of a later vintage which he can obtain. In old established houses solera wine is therefore a mixture of a great number of wines, of which the latest addition forms one half, the last but one a quarter, and the last but two an eighth of the whole bulk, and so forth, in a ratio which terminates only with the first solera produced without any mother wine. The production of this solera wine is a kind of chemical infection whereby good wine is induced to undergo quickly a process of etherification. This process becomes so potent in some soleras that they are absolutely nasty and undrinkable, like most essences, but command prices of from £800 to £1,000 a butt, on account of the large quantity of flavorless winc which a certain small amount of them will infect with the desired sherry flavor." (Thudicum and Du-pre's "Treatise on Wines.") Repeated bran-dyings of the poorer wines take place previous to shipment, until the 26 per cent, of proof spirit contained in the newly fermented natural wine has been increased to an average of about 37 per cent.

Some specimens tested by the London custom house officers have exhibited as much as 50 per cent. The finer sherries are free from this extreme alcoholic char-acter. Those from the neighborhood of Jerez often develop a peculiar etherous flavor called the amontillado, which is supposed to arise from the presence of aldehyde, and is very noticeable in some white Greek wines. Around San Lucar are produced the well known man-zanillas, which derive their name from a certain similarity both in flavor and fragrance to the manzanilla or camomile flower. In their highest perfection they are thin and almost colorless, with a bitter aromatic taste. They are said to be the purest wines of their class, from the fact that they will not mingle readily with other growths. The fine wines of Mon-tilla, long famous throughout Spain, are reputed to develop the amontillado flavor in a remarkable degree, but require several years to reach their best condition. Elsewhere in Andalusia are produced wines assimilating in flavor and in general character to those of Jerez, but greatly inferior in quality.

The district of Condado de Niebla, between the coast and Seville, yields a wine so perishable that it has to be largely reenforced with alcohol, after which it is taken to Cadiz and made into sherry for shipment to England. - Malaga has long been famous for the production of wines, both sweet and dry, and raisins. The entire country between the port of Malaga and Granada may be said to form one great vineyard, the mountainous parts of which near Malaga, owing to exceptional climatic advantages, produce not less than three crops of grapes annually. The first is used exclusively for raisins, while the second yields dry wines and the third sweet wines. The most noted of the latter are rich and of a dark amber color, imparted by the addition of boiled must intentionally burned in the boiling. They are said to keep for more than a century, with the aid doubtless of added spirit, but with age lose much of their sweetness. Toledo and La Mancha produce some excellent red wines, those of the latter district being distinguished by ample body and a peculiar sub-bitter flavor.

The muscat of Juencaral near Madrid is one of the brightest colored and most agreeable wines of Spain. Murcia, Valencia, and Catalonia, which border on the Mediterranean, produce immense quantities of deep-colored, full-bodied wines. Those of Murcia are coarse, rough, and inferior, while those of certain districts of Valencia, notably Alicante and Benicarlo, have considerable reputation. The lower grades of Valencia wines are perishable unless reenforced with alcohol, and are largely employed in making imitation port or in mixing with genuine port wine. Many thousands of butts of spirits are also distilled from them. The Alicante wines, produced from the grape of that name, are sweet, strong, luscious, and often of an almost sirupy consistence. Like other wines of their class, they have to be brandied in order to keep any length of time. Those of Benicarlo are sweet and heady, and are in considerable demand for mixing with the red wines of southern France. The Catalan wines are numerous and of many varieties of flavor, the greater part being cheap and of medium quality. The red kinds predominate, and it is asserted that those of the deepest tint, called in England "Spanish reds," derive their color from a liberal admixture of elderberry juice.

They require brandying, and are extensively used for building up the poorer growths of Bordeaux. Much of the cheap claret used in England and America is largely impregnated with Spanish Mediterranean wines. In Ara-gon, Valladolid, Biscay, Navarre, Asturias, and elsewhere are produced red and white wines of fair quality, but mostly of local reputation. Of late years attempts have been made to naturalize the choice wines of Medoc and Burgundy in northern Spain, in the hope of obtaining wine equal to the products of those districts; but the results have, as a rule, been far from satisfactory. The Balearic islands yield considerable quantities of wine, chiefly muscats and malmseys; while the Canaries, where was made the famous vino secco or sack of Shakespeare's time, have almost ceased to be a wine-growing country.