Test your wine knowledge with quiz questions from our expert.
The Sherry term Vinum Optimum Rare Signatum (VORS) applies to Sherry with an average age above how many years?
30
In 2000, the Jerez Consejo Regulador in Spain created two new categories for Sherry: VOS and VORS. VOS, or Vinum Optimum Signatum (“Very Old Sherry”) can be applied to solera system wines with an average age over 20 years; VORS, or Vinum Optimum Rare Signatum (“Very Old Rare Sherry”) may be used for solera sherry with an average greater than 30 years.
Chablis Grand Cru makes up what percent of regional wine production in Chablis?
2 percent
The most prestigious AOC within Chablis, Chablis Grand Cru, accounts for 2 percent of the area's wine production of approximately 40 million bottles per year (as of 2014). Ch ablis Premier Cru makes up 15 percent, Petit Chablis 17 percent, and Chablis the remaining 66 percent.
The Cremant d'Alsace AOC, which as of 2014 dominated the Cremant wine category in France, was established in 1976 (the sparkling wines can be made from Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Riesling, Chardonnay, or Pinot Noir). Alsace received its AOC status in 1962, and Alsace Grand Cru in 1975.
Mount Pleasant Winery was established in 1859, by two brothers from Germany, George and Frederick Muench, in what is today the Augusta Appellation (the first American Viticultural Area). In 1920, Prohibition forced the winery's closure; it would re-open over forty years later when Lucian Dressel and his wife Eva purchased the property in 1966.
True or False: The German Wine Queen title is older than the Federal Republic of Germany?
False
Germany crowned Pfalz resident Elisabeth Gies as the first German Wine Queen in 1949, which makes the title just as old (but not older) than the Federal Republic of Germany. The Palatinate Wine Queen title, awarded to that region's wine queen, is older, dating back to 1931.
How were late harvest (Spatlese) wines discovered in Germany in 1775?
Permission to harvest arrived later than normal
According to Wines of Germany, in 1775, the messenger carrying permission to harvest to the Johannisberg monks in the Rheingau was delayed by two weeks, resulting in grapes that were much riper than normal when they were finally harvested. We know the result now as Spatlese Riesling.
True or False: The vineyard area in Germany has never been greater than it was before the Thirty Years' War?
True
Central Europe saw most of the fighting in Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), and the majority of that was centered in what today is Germany. During that war, several of Germany's vineyard plantings were destroyed, and as of 2014 they have yet to exceed the estimated vineyard areas planted before 1618.
