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Quiz about Touching on German Wine
Quiz about Touching on German Wine

Touching on German Wine Trivia Quiz


Germany is known worldwide for its superb Riesling wines. That's far from the whole story. Come wander the Weinstrassen (wine roads) with me and see what else there is!

A multiple-choice quiz by Jdeanflpa. Estimated time: 5 mins.
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Author
Jdeanflpa
Time
5 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
392,991
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
8 / 10
Plays
320
Last 3 plays: Guest 134 (10/10), Guest 124 (8/10), Guest 1 (5/10).
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Question 1 of 10
1. Assmannhausen (AHS-mahn-how-zehn) is a village in the Riesling rich Rheingau (rine-gow) region. In Assmannhausen, they're different. They make red wine from a grape called "Spätburgunder" (shpayt-buh-guhn-duh). It's called something else on Burgundy's Cote d'Or and in the Willamette Valley in Oregon,USA. What is the better known name of Spätburgunder? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. Germany has a white wine grape that has been around even longer than Riesling. It's regaining popularity as the Germans drink more dry wines. Its distinctive name makes it look like the grape comes from a verdant forest region. Can you find our "green forest" grape? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. Blaufränkisch (which sounds like it's spelled) is a red wine grape whose name means 'Frankish blue'. It has another name, too. Seldom used in Germany, the grape is called by this second name in the American Northwest. The name looks and sounds like a notoriously stinky cheese. Can you sniff out Blaufränkisch's other name? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. A white wine grape the Germans borrowed is used to make mostly dry wines. In German it is called Grauburgunder. "Burgunder" means from Burgundy in German, and usually refers to the pinot grape clan. This particular pinot has come to be more associated with northern Italy than Burgundy. Can you find the right pinot? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. The Germans are among the world's most avid crossbreeders of wine grapes. In the 1950s the viticulture school at Weinsburg developed a high quality red wine grape that is rapidly gaining popularity. Its name means "from the thornfield" and looks like it might trace back to the family of Star Trek the Next Generation actor Michael ______, who played a Klingon. Can you find this newer grape? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. Liebfraumilch, is a pleasant if undistinguished white wine that has introduced many people to German wine. The functional translation is "Our Lady's Milk". The name is derived from the Liebfrauenstift vineyard in Worms. The vineyard is only about one kilometer/0.6 mile from the great River that is the traditional artery through which the wine of Germany flowed. Name the river. Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. The Baden wine region in southern Germany produces a delicate rose wine so pale it is called Weissherbst or "white autumn". There are other places that make these very, very pale pink wines, which carry a French name that means "grey wine". What would Weissherbst be called in the rest of the world?
Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. Germany produces sparkling wine,too. The most common on the world market is Sekt (zekt). Most of it is perfectly decent bulk process sparkling wine. Less than 10% is held to much higher standards, either made much like Champagne,and from the same suite of grapes, or based on a single German grape. Which German grape? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. Riesling is the elephant in the room when we speak of German wine. Elephants can live up to 80 years. While many people adore fresh, young Riesling, our question is can Riesling age well? Respect the pachyderm! Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. The great Riesling dessert wines of Germany are justly legendary. They share a common bond with Sauternes from Bordeaux and Tokaji Essensia from Hungary. These great wines need the presence of a microbe that is only sometimes beneficial. The Germans call it "Edelfäule", the French "pourriture noble". What is it called in English? Hint



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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Assmannhausen (AHS-mahn-how-zehn) is a village in the Riesling rich Rheingau (rine-gow) region. In Assmannhausen, they're different. They make red wine from a grape called "Spätburgunder" (shpayt-buh-guhn-duh). It's called something else on Burgundy's Cote d'Or and in the Willamette Valley in Oregon,USA. What is the better known name of Spätburgunder?

Answer: pinot noir

Spätburgunder literally translates as "the late (ripening) one from Burgundy". Burgundy is pinot noir's ancestral home, but excellent examples come from the American West, including Oregon, and from New Zealand. Assmannhausen's Spätburgunder doesn't usually get excellent ratings, but it's quite good and very typical of the grape, with tangy cherry flavors underlain by a taste of the earth that's highly prized among pinot drinkers.

The French call it 'gout de terroir', the Germans say "Bodengeschmack" (boh-den-geh-schmak). Nebbiolo is the great grape of the Italian Piemonte district. Neither cabernet sauvignon or syrah/shiraz is grown in noticable quantities in Germany.
2. Germany has a white wine grape that has been around even longer than Riesling. It's regaining popularity as the Germans drink more dry wines. Its distinctive name makes it look like the grape comes from a verdant forest region. Can you find our "green forest" grape?

Answer: grüner Silvaner

Grüner Silvaner, usually just called Silvaner (zihl-FAHN-uh), makes a pleasant dry, citrus and mineral flavored wine that is one of the few that plays nice with asparagus ('Spargel' in German). In the Rheinhessen district, when the Spargel crop comes in, the Silvaner comes out. I'm afraid I was having some fun with the incorrect answers. Blaues Auge is 'blue eye' the injury called a black eye in English. Schwarzes Huhn is black chicken. I'm a grauer Kopf, a grey head.
3. Blaufränkisch (which sounds like it's spelled) is a red wine grape whose name means 'Frankish blue'. It has another name, too. Seldom used in Germany, the grape is called by this second name in the American Northwest. The name looks and sounds like a notoriously stinky cheese. Can you sniff out Blaufränkisch's other name?

Answer: Lemburger

The Germanic look and sound of Lemburger should have helped. The other answers are all famously smelly cheeses, but have nothing to do with wine, unless you count the sommelier's nightmare of trying to wine pair those cheeses. Lemburger is actually a variant spelling of Limburger (the cheese).

The name traces to the brief lived Duchy of Limburg, in what is now the Netherlands, that existed from about 1830 until 1866. The "Frankish" in Blaufränkisch is from the region of Franken, sometimes called Franconia in English, the ancestral home of Karl der Grosse/Charlemagne's people, the Franks.
4. A white wine grape the Germans borrowed is used to make mostly dry wines. In German it is called Grauburgunder. "Burgunder" means from Burgundy in German, and usually refers to the pinot grape clan. This particular pinot has come to be more associated with northern Italy than Burgundy. Can you find the right pinot?

Answer: pinot gris/grigio

The key is color. "Grauer" is grey in German, French is "gris", and the Italian is "grigio". I left the other colors in French to help you out. Pinot meunier is unique, in that it's named for the flour white undersides of its leaves and not the grape color. Meunier is "miller" in French.
5. The Germans are among the world's most avid crossbreeders of wine grapes. In the 1950s the viticulture school at Weinsburg developed a high quality red wine grape that is rapidly gaining popularity. Its name means "from the thornfield" and looks like it might trace back to the family of Star Trek the Next Generation actor Michael ______, who played a Klingon. Can you find this newer grape?

Answer: Dornfelder

Although Dornfelder does translate as "from the thornfield" its name is actually a tribute to Immanuel A.L. Dornfeld, a senior civil servant instrumental in bringing the viticulture school to Weinsburg. The false answers were me at play again: Feuerstein means firestone, Scharfezunge means sharp tongue, and Schwarzeherz means black heart. Dornfelder is growing in popularity because it not only makes good dry red wine, but a very palatable sweet one as well.
6. Liebfraumilch, is a pleasant if undistinguished white wine that has introduced many people to German wine. The functional translation is "Our Lady's Milk". The name is derived from the Liebfrauenstift vineyard in Worms. The vineyard is only about one kilometer/0.6 mile from the great River that is the traditional artery through which the wine of Germany flowed. Name the river.

Answer: Rhine River

The Rhine has been the conduit for German wine since Roman times. Not only do great vineyards line its banks, but its tributary rivers like the Mosel, Nahe and Ahr are great wine zones in their own rights. The other rivers listed are among the longest flowing through Germany.
7. The Baden wine region in southern Germany produces a delicate rose wine so pale it is called Weissherbst or "white autumn". There are other places that make these very, very pale pink wines, which carry a French name that means "grey wine". What would Weissherbst be called in the rest of the world?

Answer: vin gris

French viticultural tradition has anything lacking standard coloration as "grey" or "gris", be it a grape like pinot gris, or a wine like vin gris. The other three options are my invention, culled from an internet list of French synonyms for "washed out".
8. Germany produces sparkling wine,too. The most common on the world market is Sekt (zekt). Most of it is perfectly decent bulk process sparkling wine. Less than 10% is held to much higher standards, either made much like Champagne,and from the same suite of grapes, or based on a single German grape. Which German grape?

Answer: Riesling

Riesling once again proves it can do anything. Better Sekts will be labeled either Sekt b.A., or Deutscher Sekt. Be careful of labels that say nothing much. Weisser Huenish is almost extinct, syrah/shiraz generally only gets into Australian sparkling wine, and sauvignon blanc sparkling wine is pretty much a New World thing.
9. Riesling is the elephant in the room when we speak of German wine. Elephants can live up to 80 years. While many people adore fresh, young Riesling, our question is can Riesling age well? Respect the pachyderm!

Answer: Riesling may be the most age-worthy wine of all.

A few vintage Ports and the odd Madeira might age well for 150 to 200 years, rumors say Tokaji Essensia could last longer, but the oldest drinkable wine on record was a German Riesling. In 1987, Schloss Schönborn auctioned off a bottle of their 1735 Riesling from the Johannisberger vineyard.

The wine was tasted during recorking, and found to be sublime, if slightly oxidized. Not bad for 252 years old!
10. The great Riesling dessert wines of Germany are justly legendary. They share a common bond with Sauternes from Bordeaux and Tokaji Essensia from Hungary. These great wines need the presence of a microbe that is only sometimes beneficial. The Germans call it "Edelfäule", the French "pourriture noble". What is it called in English?

Answer: noble rot

Noble rot and it's nonbeneficial side, grey rot are called Botrytis cinerea in taxonomy. If humidity, temperature, and wind cooperate you get the vinous miracle of 'Botrytised' wine. To me, the purest form of these wines is the German Trockenbeerenauslese, called TBA in the trade, for obvious reasons.

The name means "picked out dried berries", and that's exactly what a TBA is made from, hand selected individually picked nobly rotten grapes. They are rich and sweet, and so packed with complex flavors that English master wine writer Hugh Johnson once referred to TBAs as "an exercise in higher mathematics for the palate". Golden fungus is made up. Ich is a fish disease (and also the German word for "I"). French pox is an old term for syphilis.
Source: Author Jdeanflpa

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor WesleyCrusher before going online.
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