The grey bands in the map show where the commercially viabale grapes are grown.
As you can see the majoity of the world's wine producing regions lie between the latitudes of 30° and 50° in both hemispheres. Within these bands the temperates range between 10 and 20 °C perfect for the culitvation of vines suitable for making todays wines. This, combined with the local presence of rivers, coastal influnencses, soil conditions as well as the variation of day time and night time tempertaures, all contriubite to make the wine from whatever region what it is.
At a quick glance of the map you can see that outside of the these latitudes other countries contribute to drinks World in other ways, notably Scotland with their whisky and vodka from Russia to mention just two. Of course, wine producing nations are famed for their spirits as well, such as France for her Cognac and Italy and her Grappa but as we write this section of the web site we will point these out as well.