Test your wine knowledge with quiz questions from our expert.
What does the terms "Estate Bottled" mean when used on a U.S. wine label?
All of the above
The terms "estate bottled" is regulated in the U.S., and requires that the wine's grapes be from a single AVA and from vineyards owned or leased by a winery in the same AVA. While this is meant to evoke a sense of control - and therefore, potentially, superior quality - over the grapes, some AVA boundaries with in the U.S. are so large that use of the term, while legally justified, can sometimes be stretched to its logical limits.
According to Washington State University, there are four main classes of flavonoids in grapes. Which one is *not* found in the skins of grapes?
Catechins
Catechins, also called flavan-3-ols, can be found not in the skins of grapes, but in their seeds. They are known for being bitter and can impart bitter sensations in finished wines.
True or False: Sonoma's Rockpile AVA is one of the U.S. wine-growing regions that carries an elevation requirement?
True
Rockpile's vineyards range in elevation from 800 feet to 2100 feet, above the fog line for the area. Vineyards must be at 800feet elevation and above to qualify for inclusion in the Rockpile AVA. The Yamhill-Carlton District AVA in Oregon is another example of an AVA that carries elevation requirements (200 and 1000 feet in elevation).
According to 2014 research examining over one hundred years of fine wine investment returns, how does purchasing wine as an investment fare against traditional bonds and stocks?
Fine wine outperforms bonds but lags behind stocks
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, after adjusting returns of for storage and sales costs, fine wine investments outperform inflation and fare better than bonds, but significantly lag behind the historical returns of stocks.
Lower rainfall during ripening can lead to what effects in the vineyard?
All of the above
According to Franciscan's chief winemaker Janet Myers, "low rainfall compels the vines to make and ripen fruit sooner, and can also lead to lower crop, smaller berries, more intensity and tannins, and most likely leads to an early harvest."
True or False: Famed Australian producer Henschke is replacing wooden fence posts in their vineyards with plastic?
True
According to the book "Authentic Wine" by Jamie Goode and Sam Harrop, Henschke is indeed replacing their wooden fence posts with plastic. The driver for the replacement is their concern is that the wooden posts have caused problems with vineyard soil contamination by chromated copper arsenate (CCA).
True or False: The Bordeaux wine trade, besieged by the phylloxera louse epidemic in the latter 1800s, first brought the concept of aging wine in barrels to Spain's Rioja region?
False
The view that traveling wine workers from Bordeaux brought barrel aging concepts to Rioja during the phylloxera epidemic may be incorrect. Barrel aging in Rioja actually predates the European phylloxera epidemic, according to Ana Fabiano’s book “The Wine Region of Rioja.” In the 17th & 18th centuries, Spain looked to barrels as a means of transporting wine across its empire without it arriving at its destinations as fish-smelling vinegar. The work of aristocratic families like the Quintanos - who frequented the Medoc, and loved its wines - also played a part; they brought back Bordeaux techniques for use in making and aging local wines in the mid 1780s. The results were so good, the techniques were temporarily outlawed for price gouging. In 1858, the Marques de Riscal was commissioned to find a Bordeaux export to teach winemaking to the region’s vintners, and he found Jean Pineau, a firm believer in oak aging.
Approximately how many barrels are in use in Rioja winemaking?
1,200,000
Rioja red wine production has become a massive logistical storage challenge. Reserva wines must be aged in barrel for a year, and Gran Reserva wines for two years, as specified by DOC (Denomenacion de Origen Calificada) regulation. As of 2014, there were approximately 1.2 million barrels in use in the region.
Columbia Valley is a large AVA, covering over 11 million acres, encompassing the areas of the Columbia, Walla Walla and Yakima Rivers. It also includes the smaller AVAs Red Mountain, Walla Walla Valley and Horse Heaven Hills. About 40,000 acres of the area is under vine.
