This week, I find myself in the great state of Washington. Before we get to this week’s quiz we must first address last week’s puzzler. Here were the questions:
1. The Chardonnay produced in Corton is associated with the name of a certain person in French history–who is it?
2. Why is it that his/her name has become associated with those white wines?
Several responders answered the first part of the question correctly with ‘Charlemagne’. As you no doubt know, Charlemagne was king of France from 768 until his death in 814 He was also Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire being crowned as such on Christmas Day, in the year 800.
According to the legend, Charlemagne adored the wines of Corton and drank them regularly. Good old Charlemagne was a rather sloppy drinker, however, and the red wine would stain his gray beard. This occurred regularly, much to the dismay of his wife Hildegard, who believed that a wine-tinged beard was an undignified look for a king (I would add that it is a rather undignified look for all, but that’s just me). Therefore to appease his wife, Charlemagne ordered that the best plots in Corton be replanted with white grapes: Pinot Blanc, Aligoté, and Pinot Beurot (Pinot Gris). It was not until many years later that the French government decreed that all the vines be replaced with Chardonnay.
Our trivia master extraordinaire, Talk-a-Vino, came the closest to full credit only leaving out the role of Charlemagne’s wife, Hildegard (who must have been a real ‘looker’ with a name like that).
On to this week’s quiz:
As I mentioned, I am out in Washington this week, so I thought I would focus on the local wine scene. Which of the following are true about Washington wine?
A. The term ‘Meritage’ was first used in Washington.
B. Most of the vines in Washington are planted to their native rootstocks.
C. More new vineyards have been planted to Pinotage than any other variety in the last three years.
D. Washington has more AVA than California.
Have fun with the quiz–answers next week!
Happy New Year!
the drunken cyclist 
I’m going to guess D, only because it sounds too ridiculous to be true. Enjoy your time there.
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Thanks for playing–and good reasoning!
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I believe that the correct answer is B. By leaving the vines on their native roostocks the vintners take less risk of frost damaging their vines.
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Thanks for playing!
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I’m tempted to twiddle away my time today by researching these clues and finding the RIGHT answer; but now that I’m older and my self-esteem isn’t linking to the knowledge of trivia, I’ll just play for the spirit of the guessing game and guess–C for the obvious reason that it’s the longest answer.
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Thanks for playing and more great reasoning!
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First of all, you are too generous – I’m merely a good Google user.
As far as the answer to this quiz goes, I can only second VinoinLove – the answer is B, for the most of the vines in Washington to be planted on their native rootstocks. Looks like none of the other facts can be confirmed. But – interestingly enough, I found that J Vintners, one of my favorites, actually makes Pinotage in California…
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You are far too modest, Anatoli!
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I’m going to guess B, since phylloxera has not been a big problem here.
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Ah, the inside ‘dirt’.
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