Test your wine knowledge with quiz questions from our expert.
The dreaded vine louse Phylloxera, which mostly impacts the roots of grape vines, attacked vineyards in California in the 1980s. Which of the following vine rootstocks was incorrectly thought to have been immune to the pest?
AxR-1
California grape growers made a costly error when they grafted vine plantings onto AxR-1 rootstock (an abbreviation for a name based on its parentage, "Aramon Rupestris Ganzin No. 1") - turns out that it was not actually entirely resistant to Phylloxera, requiring expensive replanting when the louse swiftly infected vineyards in the 1980s.
Which of the following grapes are cultivated mostly on the Greek island of Crete?
Romeiko
Romeiko is a red Cretan grape variety with relatively high alcohol content, and relatively low acidity. It's primarily used to produce traditional wines that are often similar to an Oloroso style Sherry.
The U.S. is no stranger to winning wine awards. One of the most decorated wines from the U.S. in the 1800s was made from what grape?
Norton
According to Richard Leahy's book Beyond Jefferson's Wine, the Monticello wine company, founded in Charlottesville in 1873, won numerous national and international awards for its Norton-based "Virginia claret."
Pick the fastest wine chilling combo from the items below.
Ice + Water + Salt
Ice alone is relatively slow way to chill a wine down to serving temperature, but will do in a pinch. MOre effective is to increase the surface area of the cooling agent (in this case the ice) by adding water to the ice bucket. Better still is to reduce the melting temperature of the ice, which you can do by adding a bit of salt tot he mix; this will keep the ice & water mixture (and by extension your wine bottle!) cooler longer, and should speed up the cooling a bit since the mixture won't heat up as quickly when the bottle is placed inside of it (typically you can get from warm to drinkable in around 10 minutes this way).
True or False: One of the best ways to pair dessert wines with dessert is to make sure that sweetness of the wine matches of exceeds the sweetness of the dessert.
True
According to wine educator Marnie Old, mismatching the sweetness of the dessert and the dessert wine will cause the less sweet of the two to taste thin or sour in comparison; but two items of relatively equal sweetness will have nary an impact on one another in terms of sugar perception. Your best bet is to serve less sweet dessert wines with low-sugar treats, and unctuous dessert wines with sweeter fare.
The most expensive bottle price for a current-release wine hails from what wine region?
Barossa
Penfolds; 2004 Kalimna Block 42 Cabernet Sauvignon, made form what are believed to be the oldest continually-producing Cabernet Sauvignon vines on the planet, currently sells for $168,000 USD per bottle. Only 12 bottles were produced, and each comes with custom artwork and opening & pouring services by one of Penfolds' winemakers.
Methyl octalactones imparted to wine by the wood from aging in oak barrels can be an important source of aroma development in wines meant for aging. What aroma characteristic do they give to a wine?
Coconut
The coconut smell that often marks older wines that have been aged in oak is the result of methyl octalactones, isomers that originate from lipids. These are often seen in older Gran Reserva wines from Rioja, which undergo significant periods of aging in American oak.
Wine barrels are often blamed as the culprit behind the animal and rubbery aromas associated with contamination of wine by yeast of the genus Brettanomyces. What is generally considered the perception threshold of "Brett" above which most people will be able to pick out those aromas?
500 mg/l
Some scientists, according to information cited by La Rioja Alta, S.A., believe that 500 mg/l is the average detection threshold for Brett-imparted aromas. Whether or not Brett is considered a flaw by those detecting it is a matter of personal opinion (this quiz question author tends to side with those who consider Brett a spoilage yeast).
What volatile compound imparted by oak barrels is responsible for giving a wine aromas of coffee or toasted hazelnuts?
Dimethyl pirazines
Dimethyl pirazines, from phenolic aldehydes, impart the toasted hazelnut and coffee aromas. Furans tend to give toasted almond aromas, Eugenol imparts clove-like aromas, and acetic acid makes a wine smell like... vinegar.
Oak used in wine barrels generally belongs to the genus Quercus. What is the name of the "True White Oak" used for wine barrels made from American oak?
Quercus alba
Quercus Alba is the name given to "True White Oak," one of at least 24 species of oak grown in the U.S. and the only one used for wine barrel making. Missouri, Ohio, Illinois, Tennessee and Kentucky are the main production areas.
