The Fiendish Wine Quiz 2017

Welcome to the 2017 Fiendish Wine Quiz, specially designed to keep your brain cells sharp in this season of endless fun and excess food. As always it will be well worth testing your wine knowledge and research abilities because the top prize this year is a two night trip to the fabulous wine region of Champagne courtesy of Champagne Gosset, the oldest Wine House in Champagne.

The winner and a companion will travel by train from St Pancras to Reims in the heart of the Champagne region where there will be tours of vineyards and the Gosset winery and cellars. There will be time for lots of tasting, and even some sightseeing.

Never one to miss out on a visit to vineyards, I will accompany the winner on the trip. Train travel from St Pancras, two nights accommodation and all meals in France are included. We will need to arrange a mutually convenient time for the trip, avoiding peak holiday times.

For 3 runners up there are copies of the outstanding wine book of the year, Jane Anson’s Wine Revolution which looks at the best producers of organic, biodynamic and natural wines.

As always, you may use any means at your disposal to get to the right answers, including pestering your local wine merchant since they are often an invaluable source of up-to-the-minute information. This quiz is not open to anyone in the wine trade and that includes wine lecturers and bloggers who should concentrate on helping their students and followers win.

If you read The Yorkshire Post online, you may want to send in your answers on plain paper, however I shall need your name and address in your own handwriting on your entry sheet. If you have a copy of the newspaper then, as usual, please tick the right answers and send me the whole page. Only one entry per household is allowed and any multiple entries, including any entries sent by email will be discarded.

I will mark all the entries and no arguing will be allowed, although I welcome the customary nit-picking and point-scoring from regular readers which relieves the tedium of marking the entries.

All correct entries will go into Grapevine’s giant ice bucket and the winner will be chosen at random. There is no cash alternative to any of the prizes.

Send to: Sarah Freeman, Yorkshire Post Magazine, No. 1 Leeds, 26 Whitehall Road, Leeds LS12 1BE to arrive no later than Monday 15 January 2018.

Question 1: When did the family Gosset start producing wine in the Champagne region?

a) 1485

b)1584

c) 1854

Question 2: Gosset Grand Reserve Champagne is bottled in a distinctive bottle shape. What is it called?

a) Bouteille Ancienne

b) Chopine

c) Clavelin

Question 3: From which villages does Gosset source its grapes for Celébris vintage 2004 Extra Brut

a) Arbois, Arlay, Montpeyroux

b) Chichée, Milly, Maligny

c) Chouilly, Cramant, Le Mesnil

Question 4:  On a map, if Reims is 12 o’clock and Epernay 6 o’clock, arrange these Grand Cru villages of the Montagne de Reims in clockwise order

a) Ambonnay

b) Aÿ

c) Bouzy

d) Tauxières

e) Verzenay

f) Verzy

Question 5:  Gosset Champagnes do not go through malolactic fermentation. What does this mean?

a)  The wine is flat, not sparkling

b) The fresh, lively malic acid is retained in the wine

c) Milk is added to the wine to boost levels of lactic acid

Question 6: Champagne Gosset and Cognac Frapin are both linked by ownership to a delicious liqueur.  Which is it?

a) Cointreau

b) Baileys

c) Grand Marnier

Question 7: How long must all champagne be aged in the bottle before release?

a)  9 months

b) 15 months

c) 36 months

Question 8: How long has Gosset Celebris Vintage 2004 Extra Brut been aged in the bottle?

a) 2 years

b) 5 years

c) 10 years

Question 9: Which of these grape varieties is not allowed in Champagne?

a) Chardonnay

b) Pinot Meunier

c) Petit Meslier

d) Pinot Noir

e) Petit Verdot

Question 10: Which of the following wine regions may put Champagne on their label?

a) Champagne, France

b) Catalonia, Spain

c) Oregon, USA

d) Sussex, England

Question 11: Which of these regions is not allowed to grow grapes for Champagne?

a) Côtes des Bar

b) Côtes des Blancs

c) Côte de Lechet

d) Montagne de Reims

e) Vallée de la Marne

Question 12: Spot the odd one out

a) Alvarelhão

b) Alvarinho

c) Albariño

d) Azal Blanco

Question 13: If you have a wine from a Grosse Lage, is it:

a) Made in a big tank

b) From grapes grown in a top vineyard

c) Specifically from the Mosel

Question 14: How would you get from wine estates Waterford to Watershed?

a) Head south for 5 miles

b) Head east for 5000 miles

c) Head north west for 10,000 miles

Question 15:  What is ‘orange’ wine?

a) Wine made from carrots

b) Wine kept too long under fluorescent lighting

c) Wine made with long skin-contact during fermentation

Question 16: Which of these winemaking processes is not permitted for wine sold in the UK?

a) Addition of sugar to boost alcohol levels

b) Reverse osmosis to reduce alcohol levels

c) Bubble oxygen through wine to soften tannins

d) Use of genetically modified yeasts in fermentation

Question 17:  Match these wine regions to their countries

Question 18:  This little dog gets to walk through the Hill of Grace everyday. What is her name?

Question 19:  What connects the following wine producers?

Felton Road; Domaine Zind Humbrecht; Ch. Pontet Canet; Frog’s Leap

a) Each one employs a winemaker born in Yorkshire

b)  They are all certified organic producers

c) They are all owned by the same multinational food corporation

Question 20:  What is a qvevri?

a) Large earthenware pot for fermenting wine

b) A blessing for the harvest

c) A stirring stick for the newly fermented wine

Question 21:  Match the celebrity to their wine

Question 22: Starting with the smallest, arrange these vineyards in order of size.

a) Beaux Frères

b) Ch. d’Yquem

c) Clos de Vougeot

d) Le Pin

e) Les Clos

Question 23:  Which is Sardinia’s most planted grape variety?

a)  Assyrtiko

b) Cabernet Sauvignon

c) Cannonau

d) Gamay

e) Sangiovese

Question 24: What do the following estates have in common?

Glenelly Estate; Domaine Evremond: Fabre Montmayoux; The Islander

a) They are all French-owned

b) They all specialise in port-style wines

c) They are all located on islands

Question 25: Arrange these vineyards and estates from north to south

a) Ch. Ste Michelle

b) Ciel du Cheval

c) Clos du Bois

d) Clos Pegase

e) Le Vieux Pin

Question 26: Spot the odd one out

a) Grosset

b) Kilikanoon

c) Moss Wood

d) Mount Horrocks

e) Skillogalee

Question 27: What is the main grape variety in Soave?

a) Garganega

b) Pecorino

c) Sauvignon Blanc

d) Vermentino

Question 28:  Which of these Georgian grape varieties are red (R) or white (W)?

a)  Aladasturi

b) Chinuri

c) Kisi

d)  Ojaleshi

e) Usakhelouri

Question 29:  A viticulturalist picks yarrow flowers, stuffs them into a (dead) stag’s bladder which he then hangs from a tree for the summer. In autumn he buries it and the following spring digs it up again to use.  What is he doing?

a)  going senile

b) preparing biodynamic preparation 502

c) preparing biodynamic preparation 805

Question 30: Little George, age 16, has decided to plant a vineyard. He has 20 acres of south facing, chalky soil in Sussex and will plant half with Chardonnay at 3500 vines per hectare and half with Pinot Noir at 4500 vines per hectare. Assuming planting costs at £10,000 per acre and no crop for 2 years, followed by a yield of 75 litres of wine from each 100 vines, if he sells his bulk wine for £5 a litre, how old will he be before he sees a profit?

About The Author

Christine Austin

Christine is a wine writer, broadcaster and a wine judge for several international wine competitions. She has a technical background and spent five years as a buyer for a major supermarket before moving to wine writing.She writes for The Yorkshire Post Magazine and organises the York Festival of Food and Drink. She has won both the Lanson and the Roederer prizes for wine writing.

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