Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. In the 1760s and 1770s, Franciscan friars established a chain of religious institutions in what is now the US state of California. They brought with them a hardy little Spanish grape called listan negro. It became the first successful wine grape in California, now named after what the friars built. What is the name of California's foundation grape?
2. Torrontes is a white grape originally from the far northwest of Spain. These days, if you find some in a wine shop it's actually more likely to have come from South America. What country, better known for beef, gauchos, and red wine is the biggest producer of torrontes?
3. The black grape zinfandel makes lovely, earthy, spicy red wines and a popular blush called white zinfandel. It literally took decades to figure out where one of California's most distinctive grapes came from. To which east Adriatic country would you need to split to visit zinfandel's original home?
4. In the how did that happen category...an imported American pest called Phylloxera vastatrix nearly obliterated the French wine industry in the 1850s. So how did T.V. Munson of Denison, Texas wind up a Chevalier du Merite Agricole French Legion of Honor winner? You could say he got to the bottom of the problem. What did Munson do?
5. Sometimes, that fabulous import turns out to be a local kid putting on airs. A hugely popular red wine grape was proven in 1999 to have southern French antecedents, despite previous claims claiming that it was named for Greek Siracusa or a Persian city. Maybe you could ask a hermit from a great hill in the Rhone valley, or if you can still find him, the one from Australia. What grape is this?
6. Gewurztraminer (geh-FOORTS-trah-ME-nuh), a white grape best known from the Alsace region of France, is partially named for an Italian village...in German. How did that happen? It will help a lot if you recall what happened in Europe during the second decade of the 20th century.
7. In the 1920s the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa developed the only human directed grape crossbreed successful enough to become the signature grape of a country. They crossed the prolific "hermitage" (a local name for France's cinsault) grape with the hard to grow, but highly regarded pinot noir. Perhaps they reached into a portmanteau for the name. What did the South Africans call their new grape?
8. Sometimes only a name travels. Although the European Union tries very hard to protect place names associated with agricultural products, sometimes the genie is too far out of the bottle. Sweet wines the world over have been called "Tokay". The real name of the place is Tokaj, with a possessive of Tokaji, which makes a world class dessert wine. Its country's name refers to the fact that Attila's people settled there. Where is Tokaji's homeland?
9. You may never have thought about it, but that cork you just pulled out of a wine bottle is actually a piece of bark from a Mediterranean oak tree (Quercus suber) and it came from somewhere. Where do wine corks come from? The answer hasn't changed in centuries, and that fact is solid as Gibraltar, I swear by Santiago!
10. A favorite game among some people is "stump the sommelier". In my time in the trade, every St. Patrick's Day, someone would ask for a Gaelic wine knowing Ireland has no vineyards. They were surprised that I immediately gave them a bottle of albarino, and swore that where it came from, they wear kilts and play bagpipes! The grape comes from the same area that, in legend at least, the Gaelic peoples arose, you can see it in the name. Where does albarino come from?
Source: Author
Jdeanflpa
This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor
WesleyCrusher before going online.
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