Talk-A-Vino

Welcome to the weekend and your new wine quiz!

We are continuing our grape trivia series, still focusing on the white grapes, and today’s subject is the white grape called Roussanne.

Last week we talked about grape called Marsanne, and today’s quiz is about its close friend, Roussanne. Similar to Marsanne, Roussanne is also seemed to appear first in the Northern Rhône, and then from there it slowly got into the other wine regions. Today it is growing in different areas in France, in Australia, California, Washington, Texas ( up and coming to the greatness), Spain and … Italy. If you remember, Italy was the major winemaking country which didn’t make any Marsanne wines. Another interesting note about Roussanne is that it is actually allowed to be a part of the 18 grapes permitted in Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines.

Roussanne is a late ripening variety, and it is also susceptible to the various grape diseases, which makes it tricky to work with in the vineyard. However, Roussanne compensate from those vineyard difficulties with great flexibility in the hands of the winemaker, helping to create full bodied, long living wines which greatly improve with age. This is where Roussanne is often paired with Marsanne to create those spectacular ( and very expensive 😦 ) white wines of Northern Rhône.

And now, to the quiz!

Q1: Explain the source of the name Roussanne

Q2: Which one doesn’t belong and why:

a. Hermitage

b. Côte-Rôtie

c. Châteauneuf-du-Pape

d. St.-Joseph

Q3: Outside of Northern Rhône, the traditional bending partner of Roussanne is…

Q4: Roussanne was re-introduced in California in the 1980s, only to be proven in the late 1990s to be not the Roussanne but another grape. Do you know what grape was that?

Q5: One of the first California “Roussanne” wines from the 1980s had a specific name. Can you name that wine?

Good luck, enjoy the quiz and your weekend! Cheers!