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Weekly Wine Quiz #14: True American Grape
Cabernet Sauvignon. Pinot Noir. Syrah. Chardonnay. If you would be asked to name a region which makes world class wines out of those grapes, I’m sure many of you would think of California or may be Washington or Oregon first. Yes, we are fully considering all of these grapes to be “local” here in the United States. At the same time, none f those grapes were born here, they were all brought in from Europe (after all, Europe has about 7,500 years of winemaking advantage over the Americas).
Ever since the first colonists arrived to America, making wines was a fascination for many of them, including our forefathers such as Thomas Jefferson. Of course there were actual local grapes growing here, and needless to say that every possible effort was made to produce wines out of those grapes. The wines didn’t come out very drinkable, as the grapes were lacking one “minor” component – time in training to become the true wine grapes.
Determination, dedication and countless years of hard work produced its results. If you travel today through many wine trails throughout this country, you will find many wines produced from variety of actual American grapes. Yes, I agree, lots of those wines will not make you say “wow” as their big European brothers do – however, there is one grape which truly stands out on its own, making wonderfully rich and concentrated wines. The story of this grape is closely intertwined with the history of this country, following its ups and downs, so this grape is often deservedly referred to as the “true American grape”. Do you know the name of that grape?
Have a fun filled weekend. Cheers!
And The Answer For Wine Quiz #13 Is…
Wine quiz #13 was about wine and history, “When wine is a matter of life and death“. I would say that this quiz worked better, as different answers were chosen by about the same number of people (in most of the previous quizzes there was a clear majority preferred answer). I might have to learn about history of Haro in Spain, which was one of the historical centers of Rioja, but correct answer is Jamestown.
In 1619, at the first representative assembly of the New World, held at Jamestown church, Acte 12 was passed: “…every householder doe yearly plante and maintaine ten vines, untill they have attained to the arte and experience of dressing a Vineyard, either by their owne industry, or by Instruction of some Vigneron. And that upon what penalty soever the Governour and Counsell of Estate shall thinke fitt to impose upone the neglecters of this acte”. And the penalty was eventually decided to be the “pain of death”. I will tell you in one of the follow up posts about the source of this information, but for now you have your answer.
Whomever answered “Jamestown” can pat themselves on the back and have an extra glass of wine (or two). Until the next quiz – cheers!
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!
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!
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