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Weekly Wine Quiz #47 – Frost and Grapes
It is Saturday, therefore it is the time for our traditional wine quiz.
Quite honestly, I had something else in mind as the topic for the quiz (wanted to play around some etymology and urban legends) – but considering how white is everything outside (we got about 18 inches of snow here in Southern CT), I decided to take a totally different subject for the quiz – it will be all about Ice wines (a.k.a. Icewine and Eiswein).
Here are the questions for today’s quiz:
1. Briefly explain what Icewines are, including required conditions for harvesting of the grapes.
2. Which country is the biggest producer of the Icewine? As a bonus question, narrow it down to the specific region in that country.
3. Name two most popular white grape varieties for production of the Icewine.
4. Name the winery which pioneered Icewines made from the red grapes. Name that grape as well.
Good luck and have fun! Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #46: Where In The World?
Happy Saturday, folks!
Let’s play our traditional wine quiz game. As it was done a few times in this blog, below is a picture for you, and I would like you to tell me where this picture could’ve been taken (name the winemaking region, as precisely as you can):
If I will leave you with just a picture, I think it would be a very difficult quiz and simply not fun. So, let me tell you about some of the grapes which are grown in that region:
White: Riesling, Chardonnay, Cortese, Viognier
Red: Cabernet Franc, Syrah, Sangiovese, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah
Remember, this is only a fun exercise – it doesn’t matter if you are right or wrong, but it matters if you are playing (and having fun) or not!
Looking forward to your comments.
Good luck! Have a great weekend and cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #45 – an Easy One, and A Book Giveaway!
Here comes another first. No, of course not the quiz, otherwise why would it be called #45? Only few days ago I wrote my first wine magazine review, and now I’m doing my first giveaway!
It is not the wine giveaway, as some of you could’ve hope (this might be even illegal), but it is wine book giveaway. This brand new book is called Rock and Vine, and it is profiling a group of young “wine revolutionaries”, people who are [again] changing California wine industry. Here is the quote from the book’s press release:
“In Napa, fifth generation winemaker Joe Wagner creates the nation’s best selling Pinot Noir, while second generation wine brand director Christina Turley hooks a new generation on dry, high-end White Zinfandel. In Sonoma, Jordan Kivelstadt introduces America to premium wine-on-tap, while reality television star Ben Flajnik and his partners Mike Benziger and Danny Fay are mixing serious biodynamic wines with seriously good times.”
I think it should be an interesting book to read, and you even might be able get your own hard copy – and this is what this giveaway is all about.
I got 5 copies of the book to give away. In order to find 5 lucky people, I have a wine quiz which consists of 5 questions – very easy questions, I think, and some of them not even be real questions at all. The winners will be selected from the people who will leave the comments. If there will be only 5 people commenting, selecting the winners will be an easy job. If there will be more people commenting, 5 winners will be selected at random. There is one essential limitation I have to mention – this giveaway is open only to US residents – yes, I know that many of my readers come from the countries outside US, but this is not my limitation.
Here are the questions:
1. In the famous movie “Sideways”, where (in which region) the action took place, and what were two grapes which Miles was so adamant about (one positive, one negative)?
2. Which grape is referred to as “The Real American Grape”?
3. What Judgement of Paris was all about and when did it t took place (provide short description)?
4. Name three US wineries which you visited, want to visit or at least drunk the wine from
5. Thinking about your favorite wines, name one of them ( any one of them). As a bonus, provide short description and may be explain why is it one of your favorite wines.
You don’t need to win the quiz and answer all the questions in order to win the book. In essence, you don’t even need to answer any of the questions (I still hope you will answer at least some of them) – but you need to leave a comment in order to have a chance to win the book. When you will be leaving a comment, if you are not using WordPress, please make sure that your e-mail address in the appropriate field is correct. If you are a winner, I will need to contact you to get your mailing address for the publisher to send you the book.
Have fun and good luck! Open some great bottle over the weekend! Cheers!
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for my own review. All opinions are my own.
Weekly Wine Quiz #44: What’s In The Numbers?
Saturday = Quiz Time, right? Well, of course not – there are thousands of more interesting things to do on Saturday than to solve the wine quiz, but in case you got a few free minutes, here is one for you.
Today’s quiz will be all about numbers. No, no, this is still a wine blog, no worries – so these numbers will be relevant to the wine world. Below you will find a group of numbers which have direct (and pretty strong) relationship with the wine world. While each number has individual meaning, the idea is that they are all related, together they define something. You will need to figure out where do they belong and what is the meaning of each number. Here we go:
A. 100%
B. 75%
C. 85%
D. 95%
Is there a controversy here? May be, but I’m not aware of it at this point, therefore, it is an official quiz.
Have fun and good luck! Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #43: Which One Doesn’t Belong?
Domaine Romanee-Conti La Tashe 2008
Time to play our weekly wine game!
I still don’t have a good idea for the series of quizzes, so we will continue jumping around for a while. As you can guess from the picture, today we will be talking about Burgundy.
When it comes to the grapes, Burgundy is probably the easiest to remember appellation in the world – they only use two grapes – all the reds are made out of Pinot Noir, and all the whites are made out of Chardonnay – easy, right? When you see a bottle of Burgundy, you don’t need to read the back label or search on internet to find out what grapes this wine is made out of, you immediately know it.
However, as everything in this world has two sides, so does Burgundy. The payback for the “grape simplicity” is probably the most complex in the world system of naming the wines, with Grand Crus, Primier Crus, Domaines, Clos and so on (no, we are not going into the Burgundy crash course here, this is just a prelude to the question).
Playing on this complexity (see, I’m honest), below is the list of Burgundy wineries, but one of them doesn’t belong – you will need to figure out which one and why:
- Clos de Lambrays
- Clos du Tart
- La Grand Rue
- La Romanée
- La Romanée Conti
- La Tache
Have fun and good luck! Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #42: Common Traits
Did you miss these posts? Whether you did or did not – the holidays are over, and it is time to resume our traditional Saturday wine quizzes.
I wanted to come up with a nice series, as I had it with the wine reviews (#29, #30, #31 and #32), but nothing interesting came to my mind so far, so this quiz will be completely random.
Many times before I asked you to find what is different, or which item doesn’t belong to the list. This time, it is the other way around. Below is the list of different wines and/or producers from all over the world, who share something in common. Can you please tell me what it is?
- La Mondotte
- Chateau Le Pin
- Tua Rita Redigaffe
- Amuse Bouche
- Quilceda Creek
As usual, please provide the answer in the comments below.
Have fun and good luck! Happy first weekend of 2013! Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #40: Wine Basics 101 – Tannins
It is Saturday, therefore it is time for the next wine quiz. And I have to honestly admit, my mind couldn’t settle on anything particular – “how about this? Nah… and what about that? Nope.. but then… Nope again”.
After not being able to resolve that in any reasonable amount of time, I have to proceed with something very plain and simple.
Today’s quiz relates to one of the basic characteristics of wine, tannins, and it consists of three questions:
Q1: What is tannins?
Q2: What are the sources of tannins in wine?
Q3: Name at least two other food items which cause effect similar to tannins in wine.
Have fun and good luck! Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #39 – Let’s Decant Some Wines
Decanting is an interesting subject in the wine world. The question is often asked – do we need to decant the wines? Why? When? How can we decide what wines to decant? Then there is a group which says that you never need to decant the wines – but we will leave this discussion for some later time.
During the process of decanting, the wine is poured out from the bottle into a large glass vessel, which can have various shapes (duck, sphere, a toll vase, a short vase and so on).
There are two main reasons to decant the wines. First, the decanting is done with the older wines, to avoid the sediment from going into the glass. Second, the decanting is done for the younger wines and the wines of the certain types, such as Barolo, to let them breathe, to aerate, soften up and then show the fruit. For instance, it is generally recommended to decant Barolo for at least 3 hours before it will be served, just to let the wine “open up”. It is not enough just open a bottle in advance, as very little amount of wine goes in direct contact with air – in decanter, the wine gets in the contact with air over much larger surface compare to the bottle or even the glass, thus the process of breathing becomes a lot more effective.
There are lots of articles about decanting available all over the place (here is one link in case you want to read more) , so let’s get to our question (this is the quiz, remember?).
To decant the bottle of wine you need to have a bottle of wine and a decanter, of course. Then, in the “classic” decanting, often performed in the higher end restaurants, there is one more element, one more piece used in the process of decanting, when the bottle is poured into the decanter. Can you name that element and explain why is it used?
Have fun and good luck! Have a great weekend! Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #38 – Children’s Game With Wine Labels
It was clearly too much turkey, my friends – I couldn’t come up with anything super-creative for this wine quiz, so I decided to go with children’s game of “find the differences”.
When we arrived to the friend’s house on Wednesday, I spotted two bottles of Chateauneuf-du-Pape which looked absolutely identical at the first sight:
Little by little, I was able to realize many differences between these two wines – I wonder how many differences can you think of? Just to give you a few hints, don’t pay attention to the colors of the labels (color difference is just an effect of lighting, they really look absolutely identical in real life), and think about the wine as a whole when you will be answering this question.
Have fun and enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend. Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #37 – About History of Wines and Holidays
Is it seriously Saturday again? Where did the whole week go? Okay, yes, Happy Saturday, folks – and it is time for the new quiz.
I was back and forth on the theme for this quiz. It is last Saturday before Thanksgiving, big holiday in US, and I really wanted to connect together the subject of Thanksgiving and wines in some meaningful way. It seems that everybody everywhere are talking about Thanksgiving wines, but none of that stuff is quiz-worthy.
Therefore, you will be faced with two completely unrelated questions, with one small exception – both relate to US history.
Let’s start with Thanksgiving question, which will be our Question 1. As you probably know (even if you don’t live in US), Thanksgiving is the holiday where we give thanks to our country and life in general with the abundance of food, wine, and families getting together. Traditions of celebrating Thanksgiving in US go all the way back to the first pilgrims, and based on the historical records, it was usually celebrated between September and November. For the long time, each US president would declare the date for Thanksgiving holiday for each year – until Thanksgiving holiday became fixed to the fourth Thursday in November. Do you know which president signed that bill into law?
A. Abraham Lincoln
B. Woodrow Wilson
C. Franklin D. Roosevelt
D. John F. Kennedy
And now, let’s switch to the Question 2, which will be again about people, but this time it will relate to the history of California wine. There were many people who greatly contributed into making California wine industry what it is today. Below is the list of people, all pioneers of California wine industry – and this list has specific logic behind it – with one name missing. Who do you think is missing in that list?
André Tchelistcheff
Harold Olmo
Gustave Niebaum
Charles Krug
?
Robert Mondavi
Maynard Amerine
Brother Timothy
Georges de Latour
Please provide your answers in the comments section.
Have fun and good luck! Have a great weekend! Cheers!
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