It’s
a lazy, late-summer day, too hot for reading some long drawn-out essay about
wine, right? Instead, I urge you to grab
your laptop and crawl back under that beach umbrella (or at least crank up the
AC in your office) and try your hand at this fun wine-themed trivia quiz. You’ll find the answers to the questions at
the bottom of the quiz.
1. Which of the following has the world’s second
highest fruit crop cash value--outranked only by the tomato?
a.
Oranges
b.
Grapes
c. Bananas
2. What percentage of
wine grapes worldwide belong to the species Vitis
vinifera?
a. 98%
b. 75%
c. 66%
3: The use of one Vitis species for almost all grape growing has resulted in
extensive clonal relationships and limited diversity, but consumers’ and the
wine industry’s preference for traditional varieties makes the acceptance of
new V. vinifera cultivars
difficult. Unfortunately, this lack of
diversity has left grape cultivars susceptible to many continually evolving
pathogens such as Pierce’s disease. How much does Pierce’s cost the California
wine industry annually?
a. $24
million
b. $92
million
c. $105
million
4. Humans have been
drinking wine for thousands of years. The
earliest archaeological evidence of cultivated
grapes comes from grape seeds and occasional skin and wood remains found in
the southern Caucasus and dating from the Neolithic period, about 9,000 y old. The oldest evidence
of wine is from:
a) A
jar dated 7,400 to 7,000 y ago, from the foothills of the Zagros Mountains near
where present-day Iran meets Turkey and Iraq
b) A
recently discovered tomb painting depicting men crushing grapes by foot in
lower Mesopotamia and Egypt, where numerous grape varieties were cultivated as
early as 4,500 y ago
c) An
ancient Greek goblet with flakes of wine residue from about 3000 years ago
5. Koshu is:
a) One
of Japan’s most widely planted and popular wine grapes
b) A
type of sake noted for its amber color
c) A
Japanese wine company known for its award wining Chardonnay
6. Which of the following is an indigenous
Italian grape?
a)
Caricalasino
b)
Scacciadebito
c)
Pulcinculo
7. USDA’s National Institute of Food and
Agriculture (NIFA) today announced the availability of $8.4 million in available
funding for
a) Research
on combatting Pierce’s Disease in California’s vineyards
b) To
study and develop new approaches for the agriculture sector to adapt to and
mitigate the effects of climate change
c) Researching
the connection between minerals in soil and the perception of minerality in the
taste of wine
8. Wine production in China started in
a) 1986
b) the
19th century
c) 9,000
years ago
9. What do Charbono, Douce Noir and Corbeau
have in common?
a)
They were all pop singers in the 1960s
b) They
are all up-and-coming wineries in France’s Languedoc region
c) They
are all the same grape.
10. Who wrote: “A diet particularly rich in
plant foods, as the French and Mediterranean diets are, supplies precisely the
B vitamins that drinking alcohol depletes. How fortunate!”
a)
Plato
b)
Arianna Huffington
c)
Michael Pollen
1.
b) Grapes. Although they are grown
primarily for wine, grapes are also used fresh, dried and in juice. According to the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations, in 2013 grapes had the second highest
global gross production value among fruit crops, exceeded only by tomatoes.
2. a) 98%. Almost all
grape cultivars grown commercially are either V. vinifera or hybrids that include V. vinifera parentage.
3.
b) $92 million. Many industry professional believe that the ultimate future of
the wine industry relies on the exploration of new genetic diversity through
breeding.
4. a)
The jar, located at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, has residues of
tartaric acid and resin from the terebinth tree. Among natural products tartaric acid occurs in
large amounts only in grapes. Terebinth
resin was a wine preservative used all over the ancient Near East for
millennia.
5.
a) The Japanese grape Koshu has contributed significantly to the growth of the
Japanese wine industry. Koshu is known
for its distinct pale purple skin and the wine’s aromatic characteristics that
are said to be similar to Sauvignon blanc.
6.
a), b) and c). Ian D’Gata, in his book Native
Wine Grapes of Italy, says that Italy has over 377 native and genetically
distinct grape varieties including Caricalasino (roughly translated as “Load up
the donkey”), Scacciadebito (“Pay the debt”), and Pulcinculo (“Fleas up your
rear end”).
7. b) NIFA’s $8.4 million is targeted for study and development
for new approaches by the agriculture sector for adapting to and mitigating the
effects of climate change. The funding
is available through NIFA’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI),
which is authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill.
8.
c) Wine production in China started 9000 years ago and currently includes the
products of Chinese-developed hybrid grapes, wild grapes of China, and some
European Vitis vinifera varieties.
9.
c) Charbonno is California’s name for Douce Noir, a grape from France’s Savoie
region that is also known there as Corbeau.
10. c)
In his book In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan wrote: “A diet
particularly rich in plant foods, as the French and Mediterranean diets are,
supplies precisely the B vitamins that drinking alcohol depletes. How fortunate! Someday science may comprehend all the complex
synergies at work in a traditional diet that includes wine, but until then we
can marvel at its accumulated wisdom--and raise a glass to paradox!”
