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Weekly Wine Quiz #27 – This Whiskey Can’t Age Any Longer…
As you know, the subject of Whiskey is not foreign in this blog, so that is what today’s quiz will be all about.
Similar to the wine, whiskey is usually aged before it is released to the market. Again, similar to the wine, all kinds of wooden casks are used for that process of aging. Quite often used wine barrels become whiskey casks – you can see on the bottle “Port finish”, “Madeira finish” and many others – but this is not the point of this quiz.
Again, similar to wine, when whiskey is aging in the cask, it gains complexity and usually mellows down. There is nothing you can do to substitute time in this process of aging, so as you can expect, the older the whiskey is, the higher price it commands when in the bottle, but again this is not the point of this quiz.
Look at the whiskey shelf in the liquor store, and you will see a lot of bottles with the “age statement” on them – 10 years old, 12, 14, 15, 21, 25, or may be even 30 or 40 (I’m glad this post is not about prices). Typically the decision for how long to age each particular batch of whiskey is taken by the cellar master at the distillery, and whiskey is tasted along the way until it will be declared worthy of the release. But in some cases, external circumstances dictate the maximum age of the whiskey which can be achieved at the distillery, and nothing can be done to age the whiskey for longer. For instance, at Stranahan’s distillery in Colorado, whiskey doesn’t age longer than 5 years, and if they will try aging it until 8 years, they will have a big problem after all. What do you think can cause such a limitation?
Bonus question – explain what exactly happens with whiskey that it can’t age any longer?
Have a great long weekend! Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #26 – Extreme Wines, Part 2
Last week’s quiz was about heat, one of the “extreme factors” which adversely impact most of the wines, rendering them “cooked”, unpleasantly “hot” and lifeless. Among other “extreme enemies” of wine we also mentioned oxygen – while critical necessity for everything alive, oxygen can kill the wine, making it devoid of any flavor and by removing a notion of freshness and acidity from the wine.
However, there are many wines produced around the world with the help of oxygen. By allowing slow and controlled process of oxidation (while the wine is in the barrels), the wines gain complexity, develop some unusual, perhaps nutty and even salty flavors, which people tend to either love or hate.
Below you will find a list of wines (or wine types, to be more precise) which are all produced in oxidative fashion – except one. Do you know which wine doesn’t belong to the list below?
Have a great weekend! Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #25 – Extreme Wines
Most of my wine quizzes come about somewhat easy – “ahh, yes, that would make it a nice quiz” kind of revelation. Today, I was struggling. Must be the weather (or some other obnoxious, but definitely external factor). Anyway, I think this will be a pretty easy quiz for you – but it is better to stay with weekly routine than to look for excuses.
What is “extreme wines” you wonder? There is a number of “elements” which are considered extreme enemies of wines – heat, oxygen, extreme humidity or dryness, vibration and more. Out of many elements, heat and oxygen are probably competing for the crown of “Nemesis #1”, both rendering wine pretty much undrinkable.
Talking about heat specifically, when applied to the wine for some period of time, it makes the wine to taste “cooked”, removing any notion of fruit, acidity and balance from the wine. But – there are no rules without exception, right? There is one type of wine which is purposefully heated up in the process of winemaking, and heat doesn’t destroy that wine at all.
Do you know what wine is it?
Have a great weekend! Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #23: There Is A Vineyard In UK …
As the world’s eyes continued to be glued to the XXX Olympic Games in London, I think it is appropriate to follow the steps of our previous wine quiz and talk about UK wines.
Global warming or not, but the winemaking in UK is booming lately. Few years back, nobody thought of United Kingdom as a world-class wine-producing country, and now UK sparklers are winning one wine competition after another and attracting a lot of attention as worthy competitors of coveted Champagne. And it seems that winemakers in UK are moving pretty rapidly past just the sparkling wines and making other wines worth seeking.
As UK is a very young wine-producing country, there is limited number of grapes which are successfully growing there and producing the wines of notice. Below you will find a list of some of the grapes successfully used in the winemaking in UK, except one. Do you know which grape doesn’t belong?
Have a great weekend! Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #22: Olympics For All
XXX Olympic Games just opened with the beautiful ceremony in London, and for the next three weeks, the world will be cheering, screaming, crying and celebrating people willing to do more than their best. And of course, the world will continue eating and drinking.
At the moment, everything evolves around Olympics, and food and wine are no exception. Well, I don’t know if there is specially designated Olympic food – but wine – yes, there is.
Number of wines had been specially selected to be served during the Games. And truly in the spirit of the Games themselves, where 204 countries (I had no idea we even have that many on this little planet…) will be competing, some of the wines will be coming from quite unexpected places. The list below consists of lesser-known wine producing countries – and one of the wines you see above is coming from one of such countries. Do you know which country is that?
Have a great weekend! Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #21: Do You Know The King?
We had quizzes about history of the wines, we had quizzes about [big] numbers – let’s go back to the grapes and wines for now.
For today, I have a very simple question for you. We like to assign some human references to our wines. Some of them we call “the best in the world”. There is a particular Beaujolais which is considered “the most feminine” wine in Beaujolais, and then another Beaujolais wine is called “the most masculine”. And then there is a King. One of the well known wines (not a particular bottling, but the whole wine type) is often referred to as King of Wines. Do you know which wine is it?
Have a great weekend! Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #20: How Much Does It Worth To You?
As you might remember, last week’s quiz was about numbers – quite large numbers, err – prices, I have to say. But if you think about it, those $168K are paid mostly for the bottle and not for the wine – you can acquire exact same wine for a tiniest fraction of that price.
Today, continuing the subject of wine and numbers, I want to talk about auctions, where for the most cases you actually pay for the wine. And while auctions take place all the time all over the world, this particular auction took place in France (mind you, not in Hong Kong or China), a little more than a year ago, and the buyer of the wine was French. He paid €57,000 for a bottle of wine, beating another (also a Frenchman) bidder in a tight battle (nobody expected that particular wine to fetch such price).
Assuming money is not an issue, which wine do you think was worth acquiring for that amount?
Have a great weekend! Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #18: Wine and Independence Day
While last week’s quiz was definitely influenced by the hot weather, I want to still have one more quiz related to the history of wines, just to finish my imagined series. It also will be very appropriate, as in a few days we will be celebrating Independence Day here in US.
Imagine it is July 4th, 1776. Declaration of Independence is presented and voted for at the meeting of Continental Congress representing 13 colonies, signifying independence from the Great Britain. The room is cheering, and the glasses are poured for celebratory drink. Do you know what exactly was poured in those glasses?
Have fun! Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #17: Let’s Talk About Penguins (And Some Weapons)
I was definitely planning to have two more wine quizzes dedicated to the history of wines, but – considering scorching heat wave visiting East Coast, I gave up on that thought and this wine quiz will be about something cold… As cold as Penguin, may be? No, I didn’t watch Madagascar 3 ten times in the row (even though I loved the movie) – but combination of heat and something I recently learned prompted this quiz.
Ahh, yes – and you are asking what penguins have to do with wine? Well, you figure it out – but just for the fun of it, please try answering this quiz without using Google – you will be amused once you will learn the answer, I guarantee it.
I recently learned about pretty strong beverage, called Tactical Nuclear Penguin. Do you care to guess what kind of drink is it? The answer is forthcoming in next Wednesday’s Meritage.
Stay cool and have fun! Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #16: Father of California Wine
Arguably or not, but today California is the most important and best known wine making region in the United States. Starting from the 17th century, many people were obsessed with making wines in California and greatly helped to make it what it is today.
From those many people, however, there was one who is considered to be the Father of California wine industry. As we will celebrate Father’s Day tomorrow, I think it will be very appropriate to acknowledge that person who we have to thank for starting something which became a source of some of the best wines in the world. I would even say that we all have to raise a glass in his honor – but do you know who you have to honor as The Father of California Wine Industry?
As a bonus question, try to name the grape which he was planting. Enjoy your weekend! Cheers!
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