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Last: Test your vino knowledge with our annual quiz

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29Welcome to our annual wine quiz, an opportunity to test your wine knowledge to see who gets to be the sommelier of the household. It’s been an interesting progression since I first started doing these more than 20 years ago. Back then I would run into people who thought it was too hard and only got a couple of questions right. Now it would seem that there are many who will ace it, which is a statement on how wine culture has matured over the years. Either that, or everyone cheats and Googles the answers while no one is looking.

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1. The country or region considered the birthplace of wine is:

a) Greece

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b) Armenia

c) Georgia (the country not the state)

d) Southern Italy

2. A recent scientific study on cellaring wine casts doubt on the tradition of storing bottles on their side. The study recommends wine is best stored in the following manner:

a) Upside down

b) Underwater

c) Standing up

d) Buried underground below the frost line

3. If you found yourself in the presence of a Master of Wine (MW) or a Master Sommelier (MS), the correct way to address them is:

a) Your royal wineness

b) Sir/Madame, MW/MS, respectively

c) Master, followed by their last name

d) Like you would any other wine geek

4. The genus of grapes responsible for most of the wine in the world is vitis vinifera but there are others. Which of the following is also a genus of grapes:

a) Vitis horibilus

b) Vitis labrusca

c) Vitis manischewitz

d) Vitus sommelius

A farm worker drives a tractor with freshly harvested Pinot Noir wine grapes in Santa Maria, California.
A farm worker drives a tractor with freshly harvested Pinot Noir wine grapes in Santa Maria, California. Photo by ROBYN BECK /AFP/Getty Images

5. California is the wine region largely responsible for the concept of wine tourism. The man — or men — largely credited for starting this is:

a) Louis Martini

b) The Gallo brothers, Ernest and Julio

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c) André Tchelistcheff

d) Robert Mondavi

6. If you were purchasing a wine that was made using the Charmat method, it would apply to which of the following wines:

a) Prosecco

b) Sherry

c) Champagne

d) Rosé (non-sparkling)

7. Which of the following is not a clone of Tuscany’s Sangiovese grape:

a) Morellino

b) Prugnolo

c) Gombasso

d) Brunello

8. TCA is an abbreviation for which of the following:

a) The Chardonnay Alliance, a group of Canadian winemakers dedicated to the production of the grape

b) The Coastal Alliance, the group that markets wines from California’s south-central coast

c) A virus also known as leaf roll

d) The bacteria that is responsible for cork taint

9. Italy’s Piedmont region is best known for which wine:

a) Gajaresco, a Nebbiolo clone know for its power and high price

b) Barolo, arguably Italy’s most famous and noble wine

c) Moscato d’Asti, a fizzy wine made from Muscat grapes

d) Dogliani, a wine made from Dolcetto in the Dogliani DOCG of Piedmont

10. Michel Rolland and Robert Parker are:

a) The world’s most famous winemaker and wine critic, respectively

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b) The creators and editors of Extract magazine, a publication that only reviews wines that they have awarded 90 or more points

c) The inventors of the rotary fermenter

d) Con artists who famously made millions selling counterfeit wine

11. Zhen Wang Huang is best known as:

a) The perpetrator of the world’s greatest wine fraud, also known as Rudy Kurniawan and Dr. Conti

b) The scientist who first identified phylloxera, the louse that has devastated many of the world’s wine regions

c) The Buddhist monk who first discovered the secondary fermentation that gives Champagne its bubbles

d) The winemaker at Great Wall Wine, China’s best-known winery

12. According to Joanna Simon’s book “Wine with Food,” the best wine to serve with haggis is:

a) Young Cabernet Sauvignon

b) Gallo’s Apothic Red, a wine that is marketed as dry but in fact contains 17 grams of residual sugar, more than a bottle of Coke

c) Chateau Largo, a Scottish wine made in Fife

d) Australian Shiraz

13. Whom among the following famous persons is not involved in the wine business:

a) Donald Trump

b) Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the house in the U.S. Senate

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c) Savanna Samson, porn star

d) Gwyneth Paltrow

14. Mala Dinka is:

a) A wine cocktail served throughout eastern Europe made from Gewürztraminer and sparkling fruit juice

b) Romania’s most famous winemaker

c) A term used throughout eastern Europe referring to soil that can no longer sustain agriculture due to overuse of fertilizers

d) The Bulgarian name for Gewürztraminer

15. In a recent UC Davis study of the long-term effects of alcohol on rodents, which of the following conclusions were drawn:

a) That rats can really hold their booze

b) Mice, on the other hand, have two drinks and behave like gerbils

c) That rodents quite like cheese but don’t really care for wine, with the exception of Burgundy from Domaine Romanee Conti

d) None of the above

16. Brettanomyces, also known as Brett, is:

a) A type of wild yeast that can introduce wild, gamey aromas and flavours in wine

b) A small nocturnal rodent that can cause mass destruction in vineyards

c) A parasite that attacks every type of grape with the exception of Merlot, which it hates

d) A grape hybrid created to produce sparkling wine in the U.K.

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17. Animals such as birds, wild boar and bears cause significant loss of fruit in vineyards around the world; in South Africa that grape-loving animal would be a:

a) Giraffe

b) Baboon

c) Wombat

d) Honey badger

18. The natural wine movement is gaining ground and appears to a permanent fixture in the wine world. The vessel of choice for aging natural wines is:

a) A goat’s bladder

b) Concrete egg-shaped tanks

c) Neutral oak barrels

d) Clay amphora

19. For a wine to be vegan it must not include a product that is often used in wine production. That product is:

a) Egg whites

b) Bentonite

c) Beef essence

d) Chicken extract

20. True or False: Wines that are certified organic are not allowed to contain the addition of sulphites

Geoff last is a longtime Calgary wine merchant, writer and broadcaster and a regular contributor to City Palate Magazine and other publications. He instructs on food and wine at the Cookbook Company Cooks and was recently awarded a fellowship to the Symposium of Professional Wine Writers based in Napa Valley.

Answers: 1(c), 2 (c), 3 (d), 4 (b), 5 (d), 6 (a), 7 (c), 8 (d), 9 (b), 10 (a), 11 (a), 12 (a), 13 (d), 14 (d), 15 (d), 16 (a), 17 (b), 18 (d), 19 (a) 20 (false)

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