Test your wine knowledge with quiz questions from our expert.
True or False: how - or if! - you wear underwear may be an insight into your personal wine drinking preferences.
True
According to Master of Wine Tim Hanni's book Why You Like The Wines You Like, people with heightened sensory sensitivities often wear their underwear inside out to avoid irritation from the seams (or forgo wearing any underwear at all). These same people tend to fall into certain wine preference categories based on his research, and prefer the taste of sweeter wines.
Re-consolidating German vineyards previously split under quasi-feudal inheritance laws
Flurbereinigung is the post Word War II re-consolidation of land that previously, due to old inheritance laws, divided (what were previously single) German wine estates among multiple owners. Prior to Flurbereinigung, after many centuries this equal division of farmlands among heirs meant that many German farmers owned small non-adjacent vineyard plots, creating a logistic nightmare for accessing and farming those vineyards.
True or False: The Verband Deutscher Qualitäts und Prädikatsweingüter (thankfully shortened to the much more manageable "VDP") in Germany is the world’s oldest association of wine estates.
True
Founded in 1910, the VDP claims to be the oldest association of wine estates in the world. It now comprises roughly 200 of Germany's best producers, and uses a stylized eagle with circles reminiscent of a grape bunch (mandatory use of that symbol only dates back to 1982, however).
In what year was the first Spätlese (late-harvested) Riesling vintage in Germany?
1775
According to Stephan Reinhardt's "The Finest Wines of Germany" the first generally recognized Spätlese vintage was in 1775, when Schloss Johannisberg picked late and made wine from the grapes that included rot. The results were so good that it didn't take long before Spätlese was recognized as a Riesling style in its own right.
The term aldehydic refers to dehydrogenated alcohol, or the oxidation of organic compounds. During Sherry fermentation, a layer of yeast called flor converts the sugars into ethanol, until all of the sugar is gone. At that point, the yeasts transform and kick off an aerobic process, converting remaining acids into acetaldehyde. A waxy coating then develops on the yeast, causing them to float and form a protective layer over the developing Sherry that protects it from alcohol, which looks quite odd but is responsible for the magic that is a good Sherry. The entire process drastically lowers the wine's total acidity and makes Sherries one of the most (if not *the* most) aldehydic wines.
It's known that ice wines were produced in Franconia, Germany in the late 1700s. But evidence suggests that ice wines might have been made as far back as what time-frame?
1st Century AD
While the first *post-Roman* icewine was likely made in Franconia in Germany in 1794, but evidence suggests that some form of ice wine (in terms of wine being made from frozen grapes) was produced as far back as the 1st Century, AD. For example, writings attributed to Pliny the Elder, who lived during that time, indicate that certain grape varieties should not be harvested before the first frost of the season had occurred.
The concentration of Hungarian Tokaji Aszú sweet wine was traditionally measured in the amount of puttonyos (or doughy grape paste) added to a Gönc cask to produce that batch of wine. What is the storage capacity of a Gönc?
136 liter
Gönc barrels can hold 136 liters (okay, technically 136.6 litres!), and they are rarely tightly sealed. Fermentation in the Gönc can take years, usually happening in maze-like underground cellar carved out of rhyolite tuff.
Joseph Haydn, Bram Stoker, Louis XV and Voltaire all had at least one thing in common - they all loved what wine?
Tokaji
Hungarian Tokaji drinkers boast some impressive company, including not only those famous people listed above but also Frederick the Great, Gustav III, Madame de Pompadour, Goethe,and composers Beethoven, Liszt, & Schubert.
The grape Tinta Cao represents what percetnage of plantings in Portugal's Port-producing regions?
1%
Tinta Cao, which produces juicy, fruity wine with spicy notes, is the rarest of the many grapes used in blending Port, accounting for a mere 1% of plantings.
True or False: Wine-making in Japan dates back only to the 20th Century?
False
Japan now grows wine grapes in 23 prefectures, but its modern wine-making history dates back to the 19th century in Katsunuma. Before that, evidence suggests that grapevines came to Japan as early as the 6th Century (along with Buddhism, and the Kanji writing system, from China).
