I like the occasional brandy. The only wines I've ever liked are the single-note dessert wines, like plum--and I don't like them well enough to buy them. I called an expert here once at the UW to see if brandy had the same (supposed) health properties as red wine (from which its made), but alas, he didn't know. Oh well, I don't drink it often enough to benefit anyway...
Pure spirits don't have sugar, but--like all alcohol--they're metabolized first--before whatever else you ingest--in the liver, probably because the body perceives them as toxic. Next up, carbohydrates, which are also hard on the liver, as in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.