Prelude to Wine

Question 1

What are the 3 tastes in wine?

Answer 1

Sweet, sour, and bitter

Question 2

What are the 3 sources that can affect a wine’s flavor?

Answer 2

Grapes, fermentation, and maturation and aging

Question 3

What species of grape makes the most wine?

Answer 3

Vitis vinifera

Question 4

Name 3 grapes that have high tannins

Answer 4

Nebbiolo, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah/Shiraz

Question 5

What is a terroir?

Answer 5

is how the “somewhereness” of a particular region or vineyard tastes, including soil, geography, sunlight, weather, climate, surrounding plant life, and other elements.

Question 6

What is Brix?

Answer 6

The winemakers measure of sugar in grape s

Question 7

What is phylloxera?

Answer 7

a grape louse that can kill the entire plant

Question 8

What is Noble Rot?

Answer 8

Botrytis cinera, a mold that slowly pierces grape skins, allowing their water content to evaporate and giving the wine a more intense flavor

Question 9

Sugar + ____ = _____ + CO2

Answer 9

yeast; alcohol

Question 10

What are the percentage ranges of alcohol in sparkling wine, table wine, and fortified wine?

Answer 10

sparkling= 8-12
Table= 8-15
fortified= 17-22

Question 11

What is must?

Answer 11

mixture of grape juice and skins

Question 12

How do red grapes make white wine?

Answer 12

winemakers remove the skins of red grapes to make white wine from the pulp

Question 13

What is maceration?

Answer 13

soaking the skins to extract aromas, tannins, and color

Question 14

What is chaptalization?

Answer 14

the process of adding sugar to the must so the yeast generates more alcohol in the final wine

Question 15

What is residual sugar?

Answer 15

when some of the natural sugars in the must remain unfermented by yeast

Question 16

Where does tannin come from?

Answer 16

skin, pits, and stems of the grapes

Question 17

What does a vintage on a bottle indicate?

Answer 17

year of harvest

Question 18

What are two factors that affect whether a wine will last more than five years?

Answer 18

The grape, the vintage, where the wine comes from, how the wine was made, and storage conditions

Question 19

What is a “corked” wine?

Answer 19

corked wine is when trichloranisole (TCA) from the cork has spoiled a wine

Question 20

Why do vintners use sulfur dioxide in the winemaking process?

Answer 20

As an antioxidant, preservative, and disinfectant to prevent unwanted oxidation and to inhibit the action of bacteria or wild yeast

Question 21

What is vertical tasting?

Answer 21

Comparing wines from different vintages

Question 22

What happens to the color of white wines as the age?

Answer 22

White wines gain color with age

Question 23

What happens to the color of red wines as they age?

Answer 23

Red wines lose color as they age

Question 24

What is the difference between aroma and bouquet?

Answer 24

Aroma represents the smell of the grapes in the wine; bouquet describes the total smell of the wine (usually found in older wines)

Question 25

Why should you swirl a wine before smelling it?

Answer 25

To allow oxygen to aerate the wine, releasing the esters and aldehydes that combine with oxygen to yield the wine’s aroma or bouquet