Talk-A-Vino

The Wine Quiz series is not meant to intimidate. The whole idea here is to have fun and learn something new. When answering the questions, it is fully encouraged to use all available sources of information, including Google or any other search engine. There are no embarrassing answers – the most embarrassing thing is not giving it a try…

Welcome to the weekend and your new wine quiz!

Our last quiz was about numbers in wine. What I asked you to do is to figure out the logic (numbers) behind the items listed in the question, where each item has some sort of number associated with it, and then sort those numbers in the required order. Below are the questions, now with the answers:

Q1: Sort the following in the ascending order:

Arbois, Augusta, Douro, Rioja, Vernaccia di San Gimignano

Answer: the above list represents the very first appellations designated in the respective countries. The right order is:

Douro (1756), Rioja (1925), Arbois (1935), Vernaccia di San Gimignano (1966), Augusta (1980)

Q2: Sort the following in the ascending order:

Balthazar, Goliath, Jeroboam, Magnum, Marie Jeanne, Melchizedek, Methuselah, Nebuchadnezzar, Rehoboam, Salmanazar, Solomon, Sovereign

Answer: These are bottle sizes, so the right order is (with the link to the source):

Magnum (1.5L), Marie Jeanne (2.25L), Jeroboam (3L), Rehoboam (4.5L), Methuselah (6L), Salmanazar (9L), Balthazar (12L), Nebuchadnezzar (15L), Solomon (18L), Sovereign (26.25L), Goliath (27L), Melchizedek (40L)

Q3: From January to June 2020, Italy exported the highest amount of wine among all major wine-producing countries, at 577M liters (769M bottles). Sort this list of wine exports per country for the same period of time in descending order:

Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, USA

Answer: As you know these are the wine exports, all you needed to do is to find the right source of data. In today’s world, absolute truth doesn’t exist, so my source of information is the Italian online publication called Wine by Numbers, freely available for download. Here is the answer:

Italy 577M
France 455.7M
Spain 345M
Chile 225M
Australia 154.3M
Germany 120M
Argentina 84M
New Zealand 78.3M
South Africa 55.7M
USA 54M

I’m happy to report that we had one player who decided to take this quiz – Jason Brandt Lewis. He correctly answered question #2, so he definitely gets an honorable mention!

Okay, for today’s quiz, let’s play another wine game – what doesn’t belong? Below are three questions. In each question, you will see a list of items that all have a common thread – only one or two (not more than 2) of those items simply don’t belong there. Can you identify what the lists are and what item(s) don’t belong and why? Here you go:

Question 1:

Cork taint
Maderization
Mercaptan
Oxidation
Sapidity

Question 2:

Salta
Patagonia
Jujuy
La Rioja
Atacama
Catamarca

Question 3:

Madeira
Marsala
Banyuls
Port
Sherry
Sauternes

I think today’s quiz is the easiest so far, so I’m looking forward to congratulating many winners!

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