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 pairings. Pairing is a very important concept around wine, so you were presented with a few of the lists of paired objects, and you had to identify proper pairings. Here are questions, now with the answers:

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?

Answer: France – Vin Jaune, Georgia – Kindzamarauli, Greece – Retsina, Hungary – Egri Bikaver, Italy – Vin Santo, Spain – Malaga.

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?

Answer: Brad Pitt – Studio Rosé, Caneron Diaz – Avaline, Jay-Z – Armand de Brignac, Jon Bon Jovi – Hampton Water, Post Malone – Maison No 9.

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.

Answer: Montepulciano – Sangiovese (Rosso Conero wines in Marche, Italy), Sangiovese – Sagrantino (Montefalco Rosso wines in Umbria), Syrah –  Viognier (Côte-Rôtie, France), Tempranillo – Grenache (Rioja, Spain), Zinfandel – Petite Sirah (Turley, Carlisle, and other Zinfandel producers often do that).

Sadly, nobody attempted to answer this quiz, so once again I have to keep all the lavish prizes to myself.

Today we are going to play game of “which one doesn’t belong”. Below are lists of names – for each question, you need to figure out what is common between those names, and then find one item which shouldn’t be on that list. Here we go:

Question 1:

Adelaide Hills
Blackwood Valley
Currency Creek
Eden Valley
Hunter
King Valley
Waitaki Valley

Question 2:

Anjou
Chinon
Jasnières
Orléans
Reuilly
Rully
Saumur

Question 3:

Cayuse
Clos Erasmus
No Girls
Penfolds
Pingus
Vega Sicilia

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