46 THE VINEYARDS OF THE WORLD. 



SPAIN. 



Spain possesses a benignant climate and 

 a generally arid calcareous soil highly con- 

 genial to the culture of the vine. From 

 north to south and from east to west, sites, 

 soils and aspects of the happiest kind are to 

 be met with in every part of the country, 

 and luxuriant vineyards are to be seen on 

 the slopes of every hill or mountain ; yet 

 there is but a small percentage of the vinous 

 wealth of Spain ever sent abroad, and the 

 only Spanish wines of any commercial im- 

 portance in our country, are those of Jerez 

 and Malaga in the south and those of 

 Tarragona in the north. 



The fame of the Jerez wines in England 

 is of great antiquity and was even greater 

 than that of any other wine during the 

 latter part of the sixteenth century. By 

 an order of March I4th, 1517, renewed in 

 1530, the Duke of Medina Sidonia granted 



