Prized by the British as an aperitif, Sherry and Madeira are the topic for this week’s

challenge. According to Emile Peynaud (shown right) in his definitive book, The Taste of Wine, fortification is:

a method of preserving wine and protecting it from attack by bacteria. As alcohol of 16 to 18 degrees will kill most bacteria it is no longer necessary to take so much care to keep the wine from oxygen contact and it can be exposed to air in partially full barrels. This method of storage promotes what is known as oxidative ageing. The wine develops an oxidative bouquet, characterized by aldehydic compounds smelling of quince, apple, dried nuts butter, rancio and Madeira. It is this type of ageing that led Pasteur to say “oxygen makes the wine.”

Which grape variety is most commonly used in the production of Fino Sherry?

1. Pedro Ximénez

2. Parellada

3. Pais

4. Palomino

Which one of the following Madeira grape varieties would be made into the driest style of wine?

1. Sercial

2. Verdelho

3. Baul

4. Malmsey

If you’re finding these quizes useful, be sure to vote Blanc de Noir up from Number Four blog at Local Wine Events.

FYI: As always, these are actual practice questions from Frank’s WSET and ISGstudies. Let us know how you’re enjoying them and using them. Salude!

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But one thing’s for sure, getting to know Burgundy is worth the effort. Here come Frank’s two insights for this week.

Which village is in the Côte de Beaune?

1. Pommard

2. Gevrey Chambertin

3. Vosne Romanee

4. Vougeot

Answer: #1

The Côte de Or is divided into two parts: the Côte de Nuits in the north and Côte de Beaune in the south. Geverey Chambertin (which has nine Grand Crus), Vosne Romanee (with eight of the most prestigious Grand Crus), and Vougeot (home of one Grand Cru) are all in the Côte de Nuits. Pommard is in the Côte de Beaune and has no Grand Cru vineyards.

Which Burgundy appellation produces the most wine?

1. Beaujolais

2. Chablis

3. Mâcon Villages

4. Musigny

Answer: #1 (again)

With a total vineyard area of 20,500 hectares, Beaujolais produces by far the most wine of these four – besides the image was just too much fun not to include. Chablis is a distant second with 2,860 hectares. Mâcon Villages, comprised of 26 Villages in the Mâconnais, has only 1,336 hectares. Musigny is a small Grand Cru vineyard in Chambolle-Musigny.

More great information about Burgundy.

FYI: These are actual practice questions from Frank’s WSET and ISG studies. Let us know how you’re enjoying them and using them.

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Happy New Year and welcome to the first edition of the WSET / ISG Challenge for 2011. This year is going to be a great one for tastings and exciting events in the wine industry. Here’s a teaser for one that you should mark on your calendar.

The first Tales of the Cocktail on Tour and mini-festival will be held in Vancouver from March 13-15, 2011. Tickets are priced from $155 and go on sale Saturday, January 15 at TalesoftheCocktail.com.

And now, here comes this week’s quiz.

Menetou Salon is located in:

1. Nantais
2. Anjou Saumur
3. Touraine
4. Central Vineyards

Bonnezeaux is made from:

1. Chenin Blanc

2. Sauvignon Blanc

3. Chardonnay

4. Merlot

FYI: These are actual practice questions from Frank’s WSET and ISG studies. Let us know how you’re enjoying them and using them.

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All things German was the theme for this week’s quiz. Naturally though, the answers might not have been as simple as they appeared.

What is a Reichenstenier?

1. A grape variety
2. A QWPSR in Germany
3. A village in the Rheingau
4. A village in the Rheinhessan

Answer: 1. Reichenstenier is a grape variety that was developed in Germany in 1939 using Müller-Thurgau as one parent and a crossing of Madeleine Angevine and Early Calabrese for the other. Oz Clarke describes Reichenstenier has having “dull flavours which, though “not exactly resembling a Calabrese cabbage, have swathed themselves in the neutrality of the Müller-Thurgau.” Most of Germany’s production occurs in the Rheinhessan although plantings are also found in the UK and New Zealand. This grape is resistant to rot, reaches high sugar levels, but is overall not memorable for taste.

Edelfäule is what?

1. A bereich in the Rheingau
2. A field blend from Alsace
3. Noble Rot
4. A synonym for Riesling used in the Rheingau

Answer: 3. Edelfäule is the benevolent form of Botrytis that gives some of the world’s finest and most long-lived sweet wines – Sauternes and Tokaji being arguably the best known – their distinctive taste.

There is a wealth of information on Noble Rot available, but one popular myth found on Wikipedia suggests the remarkable taste it imparts was discovered in 1775 when the Riesling producers at Schloss Johannisberg, awaited the tradition go ahead from the estate owner, Heinrich von Bibra, Bishop of Fulda, before cutting their grapes. Unbeknownst to them, the abbey messenger was robbed en route and the cutting delayed three weeks – ample time for the Botrytis to take hold. The grapes were presumed worthless and given to local peasants, who produced a surprisingly good, sweet wine which subsequently became known as Spätlese, or late harvest wine.

FYI: These are actual practice questions from Frank’s WSET and ISG studies. Let us know how you’re enjoying them and using them.

Check out our listing on Local Wine Events Favourite Blogs and vote us up from Number Four.

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Time to grab some Malbec and find the answers to this week’s practice questions.

True or False: There is more Malbec planted in Argentina than anywhere else in the world.

True. Although Malbec is planted in various wine regions throughout France (including Bordeaux and South West France), the total acreage began decreasing in the early 20^th Century as Merlot and Cabernet Franc began gaining popularity. By 1968 plantings in the Libournais was down to 12,100 acres (4,900 hectares) and fell further to 3,460 acres (1,400 hectares) by 2000. It’s estimated that two thirds of the world’s Malbec is grown in Argentina.

What Argentina wine region is located in Patagonia?

1. Nuequen

2. Jujoy

3. La Rioja

4. Salta

If you don’t know the answer right away, this question can be solved by a process of elimination. Patagonia is located at the southernmost point of South America. Since Jujuy and Salta high elevation regions in the northwest, neither of these can be the correct answer. La Rioja was not a trick question – there is a small wine region of 20,000 acres, also in the northwestern part of Argentina. Therefore, the correct answer is Neuquen.

FYI: These are actual practice questions from Frank’s WSET and ISG studies. Let us know how you’re enjoying them and using them.

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Unlike Frank, I don’t travel much so I seldom have an opportunity to restock my cellar with unusual vintages.

This visit he produced a 2009 Mount Vernon Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough (a scene of the countryside shown below). New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc has long been a favourite of mine, but this brought a totally unexpected new taste experience.

Rather than the classic grass I’d anticipated on the nose, there was a crisp, almost salty minerality — slate and gravel rather like standing on the edge of an ancient excavation with a sea breeze caressing my face. Later, floral notes

and just a hint of lavender appeared, but from start to finish, this wine never lost any of its fresh joyousness.

Now I confess, I’d gotten rather heavy-handed with both ginger and garlic when I made the evening’s chili chicken stir fry, but with only 12.5% alcohol, the wine held its own and was, in fact, close to a perfect pairing. It also went unbelievably well with the chocolate cookies my fiancé whipped up for dessert — his special recipe includes cardamom, cloves, and more fresh ginger.

Alas, it seems as if this wine is almost impossible to get any other way than through the society, and the only information I could find on the web was that this winery produces only Sauvignon Blanc and doesn’t have it’s own website. Thanks Alan. Oh, and are you free for dinner again soon?

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We’ve had a bit of a glitch for this week’s WSET / ISG challenge. More accurately, Frank’s computer is having a glitch. And the name of that glitch is Caffeine. Now while I drink my java pure and unadulterated (can’t you just see the halo?), Frank adds it all — cream and sugar… that would be lots and lots of sugar.

So, you guessed it, the entire contents of an entire, sugar-laden grande from his favourite coffee bistro are currently sloshing around inside his laptop. So the next round of practice questions are under wraps until the computer techie can de-glue.

In the meantime, here are a few cool coffee factoids just for fun.

Winning the prize for funky, innovative marketing is Sheridan’s, a coffee liqueur first introduced in 1994 by Thomas Sheridan & Sons — the same company that brought

Bailey’s to centre stage. The two-stage bottle is fill with a black coffee/whiskey liqueur on one side and a white milk chocolate liqueur on the other. Carefully poured, the white chocolate floats gentle to the surface creating a drink with visual panache and great taste.

The classic Black Russian cocktail (two parts vodka, one part coffee liqueur is said to have made its debut in 1949 at the Hotel Metropole in Brussels. According to legend, Gustave Tops created it at in honor of Perle Mesta, who was at the time US ambassador to Luxembourg.

According to the International Coffee Organization, in 1720 a French naval officer named Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu acquired a coffee tree while on leave in Paris from his post in Martinique.

Intending to take the plant home, he secured it in a glass case on deck to keep it warm and prevent damage from salt water. Somehow, the plant survived an invasion of Tunisian pirates, a violent storm during which it had to be tied to the deck, potential death from a jealous fellow officer, and even water rationing that occurred when the ship was becalmed and De Clieu sacrificed most of his own water ratios to keep it alive. Finally, the ship arrived in Martinique and the coffee tree was re-planted at Preebear where it grew and multiplied. The first harvest came in 1726, and by 1777 there were an estimated 19 million coffee trees on Martinique.

Copa de Oro is a great substitute for the more expensive Kahlua.

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The Italian white wine known as Gavi is made from which grape?

1. Trebbianno
2. Cortese
3. Arneis
4. Mocscato de Asti

This one may have been a little difficult. These are all white grapes, so it’s a little harder to rule them out one by one. Trebbianno might have been a good guess, but although it is planted all over Italy, true Trebbianno is not planted in cool north. Arneis is usually labeled as a varietal. Moscato de Asti was a free one; it has its own DOC. That leaves Cortese as being the choice. Jancis Robinson considers Gavi to be Piedmont’s most interesting expression of this grape.

What Italian wine region produces all three of the following wines: Spanna, Arneis, and Brachetto?

1. Piedmont
2. Umbra
3. Tuscany
4. Veneto

This one should have been easy. Arneis is not planted elsewhere in Italy except Piedmont, it

has been known as Barolo Bianco. Nebbiolo is also known as Spanna in the eastern part of Piedmont (shown right). Brachetto is the aromatic light red variety, which makes a light red fizzy style of wine, a red version Of Moscato d’Asti.

FYI: These are actual practice questions from Frank’s WSET and ISG studies. Let us know how you’re enjoying them and using them.

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For fun, today we’re talking about a few of the wines we’ve come across recently either at tastings or by happy circumstance.

Castillo de Monseran: Grenacha, Carinena DO

Spain

$9.99

An excellent, easy to drink wine at a particularly attractive price point. Typical Grenache flavors of red berry fruit with some black cherry – very juicy, a little spicy with good acidity. Good food wine. Alcohol: 12.5%. Available in most liquor stores.

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In his witty and information-packed book, I’ll Drink to That, Rudolph Chelminski describes the origin of what is arguably one the best known, annual wine rites in the world.

It began in 1970 when two Englishmen, Joseph Berkmann (owner of a wine distribution company among other business ventures and weekly wine correspondent for the London Sunday Times) and Clement Freud (a friend and rival who happened to be in Romaneche as wine correspondent for the London Sun), shared supper and a number of bottles of Duboeuf Beaujolais over dinner.

“Only the Brits, that admirably odd people, could have given birth to the monument, the cathedral of nonsense that these two gents constructed from a tiny spark of an idea, or carried it off with such surrealistic virtuosity,” writes Chelminski. “As bottle succeeded bottle and

midnight drew nigh, Berkmann and Freud found themselves becoming keener of insight, bolder, more intelligent and more certain of their own virtues and capacities. The germ of an

idea took shape; jovial boast became affirmation; affirmation became insistence; and insistence became challenge. The glove was hurled: I can get my cartons of primeur to London before you can. Some time after midnight, each man roared away from Romaneche with several cartons of 1970 Beaujolais Nouveau in the back of his car, muttering Central European imprecations at the other and vowing to write nasty things about his rival’s oenological ineptitude.”

Since last week was the annual release, Frank chose Beaujolais as the subject of this week’s quiz.

How many villages in Beaujolais have the right to call their wines Beaujolais Villages.

a. 10

b. 37

c. 39

d. 96

Which is not a Beaujolais Cru

a. Morgon

b. Saint Amour

c. Moulin a Vent

d. Fixin

FYI: These are actual practice questions from Frank’s WSET and ISG studies. Let us know how you’re enjoying them and using them. And check back tomorrow for the answers plus more trivia about Beaujolais. (Upper left: Gamay grapes on the vine. Below: the rolling fields of Beaujolais.)

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