If you’re a fan of wine and flavorful brandy, then you’ll instantly fall in love with Albania. Located along the Mediterranean Sea, Albania is the ideal location to grow the perfect grapes that produce some of the best drinks in the region Winemaking is an ancient tradition in Albania, dating all the way back to the Bronze Age. Fast forward to the years of communist dictatorship, wineries thrived but could only be controlled by the state. Now many wineries are family-owned and produce the country’s wines, whiskeys, and the national Albanian drink – raki. Along a beautiful, blue-green lake only about 50 minutes from Durres and an hour away from Tirana. The grapes grown on their massive vineyard produce three types of wines: merlot, tempranillo, and cabernet sauvignon.