Wine Quiz
Chablis, Barolo, Port and the Judgment of Paris: 15 questions on grapes, regions and the words on the label.
Sparkling wine may legally be labeled Champagne only if it comes from a region of which country?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
France
Champagne is a protected name reserved for sparkling wine made in the Champagne region of northeastern France using the traditional method of a second fermentation in the bottle.
Spain's Cava and Italy's Prosecco are the two sparkling wines that outsell Champagne by volume around the world.
What is the title of the trained wine professional who manages the wine list in a restaurant?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Sommelier
A sommelier is a restaurant's wine specialist, responsible for buying, storing, recommending and serving wine. The Master Sommelier exam is famous for its very low pass rate.
A négociant is a merchant who buys grapes or wine from growers and bottles it under their own label, a common model in Burgundy.
Rioja, famous for its oak aged reds, is a wine region in which country?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Spain
Rioja lies in northern Spain along the Ebro river and is built on the Tempranillo grape. Its reds are classified by time in oak and bottle as Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva.
Rioja was the first Spanish region to receive the top DOCa classification, in 1991, and only Priorat has joined it since.
What does the word Brut mean on a Champagne label?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Dry
Brut indicates a dry Champagne with less than 12 grams of residual sugar per liter. The scale runs from Brut Nature at the driest end through Extra Dry and Sec to the sweet Doux.
Confusingly, Extra Dry Champagne is actually slightly sweeter than Brut, a leftover from the 19th century when most Champagne was sweet.
Mendoza, the region that made Malbec world famous, is in which country?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Argentina
Mendoza sits in the foothills of the Andes in western Argentina and produces the majority of the country's wine. Malbec, originally from Cahors in France, found its ideal home in its high, dry vineyards.
Some Mendoza vineyards sit above 1,500 meters (4,900 feet), where cool nights preserve acidity in the grapes.
Chablis, the crisp white wine from northern Burgundy, is made entirely from which grape?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Chardonnay
Chablis must be 100 percent Chardonnay. Its cool climate and limestone soils give a leaner, flintier style than the rich, oaky Chardonnays of warmer regions.
Chablis soil is full of fossilized oyster shells from the Kimmeridgian period, which fans credit for its mineral character.
Which fortified wine comes from the Douro Valley?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Port
Port is made in the Douro Valley by adding grape spirit to fermenting wine, which stops fermentation and leaves the wine sweet and strong. It is named after the city of Porto, from where it was shipped.
The Douro is one of the oldest demarcated wine regions in the world, with boundaries set by the Marquis of Pombal in 1756.
Which grape is the backbone of Chianti?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Sangiovese
Chianti, from Tuscany, must be made with at least 70 percent Sangiovese, and Chianti Classico requires at least 80 percent. The grape brings high acidity and flavors of sour cherry and herbs.
The black rooster on Chianti Classico bottles comes from a medieval legend about a border race between Florence and Siena.
Which grape is used for the celebrated red wines of Burgundy's Côte d'Or?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Pinot Noir
Red Burgundy from the Côte d'Or is made from Pinot Noir, a thin skinned grape that produces some of the most expensive wines in the world from villages like Vosne-Romanée and Gevrey-Chambertin.
Gamay is the grape of Beaujolais to the south, and it was famously banished from the Côte d'Or by Duke Philip the Bold in 1395.
The grape known as Shiraz in Australia is called what in France?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Syrah
Shiraz and Syrah are the same grape. It is the great red of the northern Rhône, behind Hermitage and Côte-Rôtie, and Australian producers adopted the Shiraz spelling for their bolder style.
Penfolds Grange, Australia's most famous wine, is predominantly Shiraz and was first made experimentally in 1951.
How much wine does a Magnum bottle hold?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
1.5 liters
A Magnum holds 1.5 liters, exactly twice a standard 750 milliliter bottle. Collectors prize magnums because wine in the larger volume ages more slowly and more evenly.
Larger formats carry biblical names, from the 3 liter Jeroboam through Methuselah, Salmanazar and Balthazar up to the Nebuchadnezzar, which holds 15 liters.
Barolo, often called the king of Italian wines, is made from which grape?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Nebbiolo
Barolo must be made entirely from Nebbiolo grown in a small zone of Piedmont. The grape gives pale wines with powerful tannins and aromas of tar and roses, and the wine must age at least 38 months.
Nebbiolo is thought to take its name from nebbia, the Italian for fog, which blankets the Langhe hills during the late harvest.
Which famous sweet wine from Bordeaux depends on grapes affected by noble rot?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Sauternes
Sauternes is made from Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc shriveled by Botrytis cinerea, the noble rot, which concentrates sugar and flavor. Château d'Yquem is its most celebrated producer.
Pickers pass through Sauternes vineyards several times over weeks, taking only the grapes that have been properly affected by the fungus.
Which California winery's 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon won the red wine tasting at the 1976 Judgment of Paris?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Stag's Leap Wine Cellars
At the blind tasting organized by Steven Spurrier, French judges ranked the Stag's Leap Wine Cellars 1973 Cabernet above Château Mouton Rothschild and Haut-Brion, stunning the wine establishment.
Chateau Montelena won the white category with its 1973 Chardonnay, and both winning bottles are now held by the Smithsonian.
In which country is wine traditionally fermented in qvevri, large clay vessels buried in the ground?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Georgia
Georgian winemakers have fermented and stored wine in beeswax lined qvevri buried up to the neck for around 8,000 years, and UNESCO added the method to its Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2013.
Georgia's amber wines, made by leaving white grapes on their skins in qvevri for months, inspired the modern orange wine trend.
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All Food and Drink quizzes →About the Wine Quiz
Wine has 8,000 years of history, thousands of grape varieties and a vocabulary that can baffle even confident drinkers. Only sparkling wine from one region of France may be called Champagne, the great reds of Burgundy come from a single grape, and in 1976 a blind tasting in Paris shocked the wine world when California beat Bordeaux.
These 15 questions move from the basics everyone should know, like what Brut means on a label and who the sommelier is, through the grapes behind Chablis, Chianti and Barolo, to a few deeper cuts on noble rot and the clay vessels of Georgia. It suits curious drinkers, dinner party hosts and anyone studying for a wine course.
You will find 15 multiple choice questions here, each with four options. Difficulty: Hard. Most people finish in about 6 minutes, and every answer comes with a short explanation and one extra fact worth keeping.
How to play
Read the question and pick one of the four answers. The correct answer is revealed straight away with a short explanation, then press Next question to keep going. At the end you get your score out of 15 and a full review of your round. Play again any time and the questions arrive in a fresh order. There is no timer and no account.
Good to know before you play
Do I need to be a wine expert to play?
No. About half the questions cover basics like Champagne, Rioja and Port. The rest reward anyone who reads labels or has taken an introductory tasting course.
Which wine regions are covered?
France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, California and Georgia all feature, with questions on Champagne, Chablis, Burgundy, Chianti, Barolo, Sauternes and the Douro.
Are the grape variety answers reliable?
Yes. Each question is based on the official rules of the appellation, such as Chablis being 100 percent Chardonnay and Barolo being made only from Nebbiolo.
Answer key: all 15 questions with explanations
- Sparkling wine may legally be labeled Champagne only if it comes from a region of which country?
France Champagne is a protected name reserved for sparkling wine made in the Champagne region of northeastern France using the traditional method of a second fermentation in the bottle. Spain's Cava and Italy's Prosecco are the two sparkling wines that outsell Champagne by volume around the world. - What is the title of the trained wine professional who manages the wine list in a restaurant?
Sommelier A sommelier is a restaurant's wine specialist, responsible for buying, storing, recommending and serving wine. The Master Sommelier exam is famous for its very low pass rate. A négociant is a merchant who buys grapes or wine from growers and bottles it under their own label, a common model in Burgundy. - Rioja, famous for its oak aged reds, is a wine region in which country?
Spain Rioja lies in northern Spain along the Ebro river and is built on the Tempranillo grape. Its reds are classified by time in oak and bottle as Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva. Rioja was the first Spanish region to receive the top DOCa classification, in 1991, and only Priorat has joined it since. - What does the word Brut mean on a Champagne label?
Dry Brut indicates a dry Champagne with less than 12 grams of residual sugar per liter. The scale runs from Brut Nature at the driest end through Extra Dry and Sec to the sweet Doux. Confusingly, Extra Dry Champagne is actually slightly sweeter than Brut, a leftover from the 19th century when most Champagne was sweet. - Mendoza, the region that made Malbec world famous, is in which country?
Argentina Mendoza sits in the foothills of the Andes in western Argentina and produces the majority of the country's wine. Malbec, originally from Cahors in France, found its ideal home in its high, dry vineyards. Some Mendoza vineyards sit above 1,500 meters (4,900 feet), where cool nights preserve acidity in the grapes. - Chablis, the crisp white wine from northern Burgundy, is made entirely from which grape?
Chardonnay Chablis must be 100 percent Chardonnay. Its cool climate and limestone soils give a leaner, flintier style than the rich, oaky Chardonnays of warmer regions. Chablis soil is full of fossilized oyster shells from the Kimmeridgian period, which fans credit for its mineral character. - Which fortified wine comes from the Douro Valley?
Port Port is made in the Douro Valley by adding grape spirit to fermenting wine, which stops fermentation and leaves the wine sweet and strong. It is named after the city of Porto, from where it was shipped. The Douro is one of the oldest demarcated wine regions in the world, with boundaries set by the Marquis of Pombal in 1756. - Which grape is the backbone of Chianti?
Sangiovese Chianti, from Tuscany, must be made with at least 70 percent Sangiovese, and Chianti Classico requires at least 80 percent. The grape brings high acidity and flavors of sour cherry and herbs. The black rooster on Chianti Classico bottles comes from a medieval legend about a border race between Florence and Siena. - Which grape is used for the celebrated red wines of Burgundy's Côte d'Or?
Pinot Noir Red Burgundy from the Côte d'Or is made from Pinot Noir, a thin skinned grape that produces some of the most expensive wines in the world from villages like Vosne-Romanée and Gevrey-Chambertin. Gamay is the grape of Beaujolais to the south, and it was famously banished from the Côte d'Or by Duke Philip the Bold in 1395. - The grape known as Shiraz in Australia is called what in France?
Syrah Shiraz and Syrah are the same grape. It is the great red of the northern Rhône, behind Hermitage and Côte-Rôtie, and Australian producers adopted the Shiraz spelling for their bolder style. Penfolds Grange, Australia's most famous wine, is predominantly Shiraz and was first made experimentally in 1951. - How much wine does a Magnum bottle hold?
1.5 liters A Magnum holds 1.5 liters, exactly twice a standard 750 milliliter bottle. Collectors prize magnums because wine in the larger volume ages more slowly and more evenly. Larger formats carry biblical names, from the 3 liter Jeroboam through Methuselah, Salmanazar and Balthazar up to the Nebuchadnezzar, which holds 15 liters. - Barolo, often called the king of Italian wines, is made from which grape?
Nebbiolo Barolo must be made entirely from Nebbiolo grown in a small zone of Piedmont. The grape gives pale wines with powerful tannins and aromas of tar and roses, and the wine must age at least 38 months. Nebbiolo is thought to take its name from nebbia, the Italian for fog, which blankets the Langhe hills during the late harvest. - Which famous sweet wine from Bordeaux depends on grapes affected by noble rot?
Sauternes Sauternes is made from Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc shriveled by Botrytis cinerea, the noble rot, which concentrates sugar and flavor. Château d'Yquem is its most celebrated producer. Pickers pass through Sauternes vineyards several times over weeks, taking only the grapes that have been properly affected by the fungus. - Which California winery's 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon won the red wine tasting at the 1976 Judgment of Paris?
Stag's Leap Wine Cellars At the blind tasting organized by Steven Spurrier, French judges ranked the Stag's Leap Wine Cellars 1973 Cabernet above Château Mouton Rothschild and Haut-Brion, stunning the wine establishment. Chateau Montelena won the white category with its 1973 Chardonnay, and both winning bottles are now held by the Smithsonian. - In which country is wine traditionally fermented in qvevri, large clay vessels buried in the ground?
Georgia Georgian winemakers have fermented and stored wine in beeswax lined qvevri buried up to the neck for around 8,000 years, and UNESCO added the method to its Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2013. Georgia's amber wines, made by leaving white grapes on their skins in qvevri for months, inspired the modern orange wine trend.
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