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Weekly Wine Quiz #13 – Wine as a Matter of Life and … Death
Continuing our historical angle, here is a new quiz for you. While reading a wine book, I was surprised to learn about harsh ways wine industry was using in order to promote itself. What do I mean by the harsh ways? So there was a town which enacted a law, requiring all households to plant and tend for grape vines. The penalty for not complying? Nothing less than “pain of death”! Don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound pretty for me.
Anyway, would you care to guess which town was it?
Have a great long weekend! Cheers!
And The Answer For The Wine Quiz #12 Is…
It seems that lots pf people took study of Prohibition experiment very seriously, which is showing in the results of the Wine Quiz #12, The End of Prohibition. Correct answer is State of Utah, which had a [deciding?] Vote #36 which put an end to the Prohibition (note that both Ohio and Pennsylvania voted on the same day December 5, 1933, but Utah is listed as having the deciding vote).
Here is an answer to the quiz in the form of the picture, as the event was commemorated by High West distillery in Utah (I have to thank W. Blake Gray for this discovery of a great cocktail in a bottle):
You can read all about it on the side label:
Until the next time – Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #12: The End of Prohibition
It seems that wine quiz #11, Bubbles, Big and Small, was really simple, and most of you did great – yes, the correct answer is 49,000,000 – assuming our source of information didn’t make a grave mathematical error (you can read about it here).
For the next few of quizzes, I want to focus a bit on history. Actually, a wine quiz by 1WineDude Joe Roberts, called State of (Grape) Affairs, prompted me to look at the historical side of all things wine.
Have you ever tried a wine from state of Missouri? Me neither – and it appears that before Prohibition, there were more than 2 million gallons of wine produced in the State of Missouri, including internationally renowned wines. Prohibition squarely put an end to it and tremendous number of vineyards were destroyed.
I don’t know about you, but I’m surely glad Prohibition was repealed on December 5, 1933. Of course while majority of the states had to vote for repeal of the Prohibition, there is one state which is considered to have a deciding vote. Do you know what state was that?
As a bonus question, please provide a number of deciding vote (use comments section).
Have fun! Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #11 – Bubbles, Big and Small
It seems that my wine quiz #10 was a failure, as there were only 3 responses. Oh well – I wanted to make it “somewhat” difficult, but crossed the border into “very” difficult. Today’s quiz will be nothing like that.
Tomorrow is the Mother’s Day, which is a good reason to open a bottle of champagne (not that we need a special reason for that). Once the celebration liquid is in the glass, did you ever sit still looking at that glass and adoring the chains of tiny bubbles coming up, up and away?
Today’s test will require you to brush up high school or may be even college math curriculum, including Algebra 10, Trigonometry 12, Calculus 15 and …wait, don’t close this page – I’m only kidding. Today’s quiz will not require any math skills whatsoever, but you should put on your best guessing game (yes, check your answer with Google, please – but only after you will vote in your answer).
And the question is: how many bubbles are in a bottle of Champagne? Of course your answer should be only approximate, if you think it is 500,000 or 900,000, chose 700,000 from the list below, it should work just fine. Of course you can use the empirical approach and actually open the bottle of champagne and count all the bubbles, but you better be a very, very fast counter. Good Luck!
No matter what you answered, and sparkling or still, but don’t forget to open a great bottle tomorrow to celebrate Mom! Cheers!
Rediscovering Ridge
About five years ago, during one of my numerous trips to California, I had a little bit of free time. What do you do when you are in California, have a little bit of free time and love of wine? Of course, you go visit the winery!
A that time I decided to go visit Ridge Vineyards, located in Santa Cruz Mountains region, not far from San Jose. All I knew is that the winery is making wine called Monte Bello, which became famous after beating classic French Bordeaux during 1976 Judgement of Paris event. So I managed a steep 4 miles ride up the Monte Bello road, reached the winery, tasted 5 or 6 different wines and … didn’t like a single one of them. No, I don’t remember what exact wines and what exact vintages I tried, I just remember that none of the wines created any ”oompf”. I was disappointed and squarely put all the Ridge wines into ”I [really] don’t like it” category.
Holding that unhappy memory through the years, last year I even expressed my opinion in the comment to the twitter post by Jancis Robinson (she selected Ridge for a special wine tasting in Hong Kong), which caused some very unhappy reaction among her followers (to say “very unhappy” is a very mild understatement).
I can’t tell you why, but when this year I found out that I will be in San Jose area and I will have a bit of the free time, very first thought was ”I have to try Ridge wines again”. Four steep miles up the Monte Bello road and here I’m again. The air was beautiful, and so was the scenery – let me share a few pictures with you.
Ridge Vineyards is located near the top of Monte Bello Ridge. This is the “view from the top”:
These are the vineyards at Ridge (by the way, in case you recognize the picture, it gives you an answer to the wine quiz #10, Where in California – correct answer is Santa Cruz Mountains region):
Here are some beautiful flowers for you:
Can you guess what happened now? I tried 7 different wines and … I liked loved every one of them. They all had common trait – balance and elegance, a quiet beauty, and may be most importantly, a sense of place – terroir, as French would put it. None of the wines were in-your-face, see-how-much-muscled-fruit-i-have – all of them were rather subtle, thought provoking and requiring time to reflect upon the content of your glass.
I don’t have an explanation. How come I didn’t like any wines the first time? Was that a ”leaf day”, a ”root day” or ”generally unfavorable” day? Did my palate evolved (that one I’m quite sure is true)? As you can’t enter the same river twice, I will not be able to relive that day 5 years ago and understand my reaction at that time. But I’m glad someone somehow somewhere decided that I have to go and try Ridge wines again – and discover something really beautiful.
Here are the tasting notes for the wines I tried:
2010 Estate Chardonnay – A little edgy in unusual way, some herbal undertones, oak is unnoticeable, except back palate burn. Opens a bit cleaner later on, long finish with hint of lemon.
2009 East Bench Zinfandel (15.1% ABV) – dry, with some dry rub spices, nice nose of blackberries, unnoticeable alcohol level, very balanced, perfect fruit and acidity on the palate.
2007 Lytton Estate Syrah/Grenache (14.49% ABV) – nice fruit, touch of spice, hint of dry cherries, gentle tannins, good acidity. Perception of tannins increases going forwward.
2009 Estate Cabernet – Tremendous minerality on the nose, you can literally smell the earth. Very nice – hint of green, very Bordeaux-ish in style, restrained and balanced
2009 Buchignani Ranch Carignane – Tobacco and tar, nice bite of spice, nice simplicity. good tannins on the finish.
2006 Dynamite Hill Petite Sirah – Beautiful fruit right on top, dark fruit undertones, some cherries.
2006 Monte Bello – Beautiful fruit, perfect balance, very classic Cabernet Sauvignon blend, very long finish with tannins which are growing on you, hint of tobacco and earthiness on the palate. I’m glad this was the last wine I tasted, as the finish actually lasted at least for the next 20 minutes.
Yes, I was wrong before, and I don’t have any problems admitting it and getting over it – Ridge Vineyards makes great wines with the sense of place, and – better late than never – I’m very happy I made this discovery. Let’s raise the glass to the great discoveries of our lives! Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #10 – Where [In California] Am I?
It looks like you had no problems with Wine Quiz #9, Which grape is not synonym to Tempranillo , correctly identifying Tinto Cao as the grape on its own. Also judging from the small number of responses, I have to assume that this was not a very exciting question.
For today’s quiz, I decided to ask for your help (again) to identify where in the world am I. I’m actually in California, but where exactly in California (which AVA) is a question. Just in case it can help you, here is the link to list of all California AVAs.
So, what do you think – please also share your thoughts in the comments:
Good luck and cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #9 – What Is In The Name?
For today’s wine quiz, let’s talk about grapes, or more precisely, about the grape names. Just to make sure wine consumers are sufficiently confused, one and the same grape is called something completely different in various regions around the world. For instance, the grape which we know as Pinot Noir, is also known as Pinot Nero in Italy, Pinot Franc in the eastern-European countries, Spätburgunder in Germany and Blauburgunder in Austria.
Tempranillo is a grape which is used in production of many wonderful wines all over the world. It is particularly popular in Spain, where it is used to produce magnificent Rioja and Ribera del Duero wines, as well as in Portugal and many other countries. Tempranillo also has one the largest numbers of synonyms compare to the majority of other grapes, which makes it a good subject for today’s quiz.
Below you can see a number of grape names which are synonyms with Tempranillo – all except one. Can you identify which one is it?
Have fun! Cheers!
The Answer For The Wine Quiz #8, plus Another [Tricky] Mini Quiz
The subject of the wine quiz #8 was “Do you know your AVAs“, and it seems that most of you have a pretty good knowledge of them. The list in the quiz contained mostly Napa Valley AVAs, with the exception of one – the correct answer was “Knight Valley”, as it is an AVA in Sonoma. Well done, team. To kick it up a notch, questions about AOCs, AOPs, DOs, DOCGs, IGTs and WOs are forthcoming in the near future.
Now, for the mini-quiz which you will need to answer in the comments, I have a question for you. Have you heard of the expression “Whistle while you work“? Do you know where it is coming from and what is the relation of that saying to the wine world? Please comment with your answer.
Happy Wine Tuesday! Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #8 – Do You Know Your AVAs?
Saturday has come, so is the time for our weekly wine quiz. Before we get to the quiz itself, just a little update – based on the “popular demand” (okay, I don’t know if it was popular, but I got couple of requests), the answers for the weekly wine quiz will be provided in a few days after the quiz was published (probably Tuesday or Wednesday of the following week). And if that doesn’t make everyone happy – we can change it again.
Now, the subject of today’s quiz is something which is called AVA – American Viticultural Area, which is similar to the french concept of AOC. AVA designates the certain region as having unique terroir and unique grape growing and wine production requirements. If you remember an example with circles from Singles Night Out blog post, all AVAs are enclosed into one another – California includes Central Coast, Mendocino, Napa Valley, Sonoma Valley and more, all of which are AVAs in their own right. And then there are more smaller AVAs definied within a bigger one, such as Howell Mountain, Diamond Mountain and Yountville all being sub-regions of Napa valley.
Now, for the task at hand, below is a list of “smaller” AVAs. They all belong to one and the same bigger AVA, except one. And the question is: which one doesn’t belong?
Enjoy your weekend! Cheers!
And The Answer For The Wine Quiz #7 Is…
I was told today that waiting for a whole week to get an answer for the wine quiz is unacceptable. So I have to comply with this request (okay, it was more than one request) and start providing answers sooner. Here comes an answer for the Wine Quiz #7 – Where in the world am I.
Yes, I understand that the question could’ve being a bit unfair, but nevertheless – this is California. To be more precise, this is Temecula Valley, almost a Southern-most appellation (AVA) in California, and the picture was taken from Leonesse Cellars property.
We will continue the subject of appellations, or AVAs (American Viticultural Area) in the next wine quiz – just making sure you will be ready…
Cheers!
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