Prelude & Wine Basics

Question 1

What are Three Flavors in Wine?

Answer 1

Sweet, Sour, and Bitter

Question 2

What are three sources that can affect a wine taste?

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 Three grapes that have high tannin.

Answer 4

Nebbiolo, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah

Question 5

What is Terroir?

Answer 5

The typicity of wine, a particular region’s taste including: soil, geography, sunlight, weather, climate, surrounding plant life, and other elements including the winemakers influence.

Question 6

What is Brix?

Answer 6

The measure of sugar in grapes

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 + _________ = _________ + Carbon Dioxide

Answer 9

Sugar + YEAST = ALCOHOL + Carbon Dioxide

Question 10

What are the percentage ranges of alcohol in sparkling wine?

Answer 10

8% - 12%

Question 11

What are the percentage ranges of alcohol in table wine?

Answer 11

8% - 15%

Question 12

What are the percentage ranges of alcohol in fortified wine?

Answer 12

17% - 22%

Question 13

What is must?

Answer 13

The mixture of grape juice and skins

Question 14

How do red grapes make white wine?

Answer 14

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

Question 15

What is maceration?

Answer 15

Soaking the skins to extract aromas, tannins, and color.

Question 16

What is chaptalization?

Answer 16

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

Question 17

What is residual sugar?

Answer 17

When some of the natural sugars in the must remain unfermented by yeast.

Question 18

Where does tannin come from?

Answer 18

Tannin comes from the skins, pits, and stems

Question 19

What does a vintage on a bottle indicate?

Answer 19

The year the growers harvested the grapes

Question 20

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

Answer 20

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

Question 21

What is a “corked” wine?

Answer 21

Tri-chloro-anisole (TCA) from the cork has spoiled the wine.

Question 22

Why do vintners use sulfur dioxide in the winemaking process?

Answer 22

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

Question 23

What is vertical tasting?

Answer 23

Comparing wines from different vintages

Question 24

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

Answer 24

White wines gain color (Golden)

Question 25

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

Answer 25

Red wines lose color (Tawny, Brickish, Brown)

Question 26

What is the difference between aroma and bouquet?

Answer 26

Aroma represents the smell of grapes in the wine, bouquet describes the total smell of the wine

Question 27

Why should you swirl wine before smelling it?

Answer 27

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