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 finding the item which doesn’t belong – and providing an explanation as to why it doesn’t belong. Here are the questions, now with the answers

Question 1:

Cork taint, Maderization, Mercaptan, Oxidation, Sapidity

Answer: This is a list of the wine faults, with the exception of Sapidity, which is a flavor descriptor, not a wine fault. If you want to learn more about wine faults, here is a good article.

Question 2:

Salta, Patagonia, Jujuy, La Rioja, Atacama, Catamarca

Answer: this is a list of the wine regions in Argentina with exception of one – Atacama. The Atacama is actually a wine region in Chile. In case you want to check this further, here are the links for wine regions in Argentina and Chile.

Question 3:

Madeira, Marsala, Banyuls, Port, Sherry, Sauternes

Answer: These are all fortified wines, and most of them are sweet – with the exception of Sauternes, which is just a sweet wine, but not fortified.

I’m happy to see the increased participation in the quiz, and also happy to say that Jason Brandt Lewis and Dorothy Schuler almost got it right – they both correctly answered questions 1 and 3, but not question 2 – they definitely deserve an honorable mention and a nice glass of wine.

Dorothy mentioned in her reply that the last quiz was very easy. Today’s quiz might be even easier!

Pairing is one of the important concepts around wine. We like to pair wine with food, music, mood, ambiance, and people. So let’s play the game of pairing today. Here are the questions.

Question 1: Here is the list of countries and wines which are famous and unique, often made for thousands of years in their respective countries. Can you pair these countries with their wines?

Question 2: Celebrity wines had been all the rage lately, with more and more celebrities getting into the ownership of the vineyards, wineries, and wine labels. Here is a short list of wines and celebrities behind them – can you create the right pairings here?

Question 3: Many wines today represent blends, a combination of different grapes in different proportions. Some of those mixes and proportions are strictly regulated by the appellation laws – for example, Brunello di Montalcino can only be made from 100% Sangiovese Grosso. Some of the rules are rather well-established practices, such as the use of Petite Verdot in the Bordeaux blends, for color and power. Below is the list of main and supporting grapes – you need to pair them properly and also name the wine or an appellation where such grapes are combined together – again, either by the appellation rules or by common practices.

I hope you will find this fun, and I’m looking forward to congratulating many winners!

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