Another Wednesday and time for another wine quiz. Before we get to this week’s enthralling questions, I need to address last week’s quiz.
All of last week’s questions are based on a photo:
- What is the French name for this? The French name for this contraption is a ‘pupître‘ which is also the word for ‘desk’ (as in a student’s desk).
- What is its exact purpose (no, it is not a rack to store wine)? The pupître was traditionally used in the riddling process in Champagne. One of the byproducts of the secondary fermentation of champagne is the dead yeast cells (called ‘lees’) that remain trapped in the bottle. The method of riddling (‘remuage’ in French) was developed to remove them which helped clarify the wine. Basically, the bottles were turned a quarter turn at a time while also being slightly inverted. This process would take a couple of weeks, but would end with all the lees in the neck of the bottle, which would then be frozen, the bottle inverted, the bottle cap quickly removed, and the small ice cube containing the lees would pop right out.
- Who is credited with inventing it? Two people are generally credited with inventing this process: the Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin (of the eponymous champagne) and her partner Anton Müller.
- According to ‘legend’ what was the very first one made out of? Legend has it that the first pupître was made out of Veuve Clicquot’s kitchen table.
This all means that we had multiple winners this week–Vinoinlove, thefoodandwinehedonist, Talk-a-Vino, and a newcomer (welcome!) Bovarij. Honorable mention goes to cupcaketravels who answered the first three questions correctly.
On to this week’s quiz.
This week’s quiz is focused on the wine-making technique or practice of adding sugar to the grape must during fermentation.
- What is this process called?
- Why is it called that?
- Why do winemakers do it?
- Let’s say you had the equivalent of a standard barrel of wine that was at 21 Brix. How much sugar would you have to add to raise it to the equivalent of 25 Brix?
- About 2 pounds
- About 4 pounds
- About 20 pounds
- About 40 pounds
5. In which of the following regions is the process allowed?
- The Sonoma Coast (but only for white wines)
- Willamette Valley Pinot Noir
- Champagne
- Austrian Grüner Veltliner
- Swiss Chasselas
Best of luck with the quiz–answers next week!
the drunken cyclist 
Today’s quiz seems quite challenging 🙂
1. Chaptalization
2. Named after Jean-Antoine Chaptal
3. When adding sugar to the grape juice before fermentation starts the wine will get a higher alcohol level. Vintners do it especially to wine from poor seasons and wines that in general of low quality. Chaptalization guarantees a proper alcohol level that helps ensuring a well-balanced wine.
4. Well I don’t know how much liters are in a standard barrel but I think there are 119 liters in one standard French barrel of wine. I’m not good with math but for 119 liters you would need 1,19 kilograms of sugar. Could be completely wrong though. If I’m very wrong can I try again? 😛
5. Chaptalization is allowed in Oregon (that includes Willamette Valley), Switzerland and in the French Champagne region. In Austria and California Chaptalization is prohibited.
That was fun!
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I thought about question 4 again and will change my answer!
To raise it from 21 Brix to 25 Brix you need around 7 kilograms of sugar. 60 grams of sugar will raise 1 liter 1 Brix. 60*119=7140
So my final answer is 7 kilograms (around 15.5 pounds for those who don’t understand the metric system).
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it is Jeff’s quiz, but based on my data, standard Bordeaux barrel is 225L and you need 13.2g of sugar/liter for about 1 Brix increase… But hey, this was difficult!
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What you said is probably true, Anatoli. I’m not very good with this.
According to Wikipedia French Wine barrels hold 197 liters. I know Wikipedia is not a good source so I won’t argue that 197 liters is correct. Wikipedia also says that Bordeaux barrels are 225 liters and Cognac barrels 300 liters.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrel.
And I think you are also right that it is around 13.2g/liter.It should be around 60g/gallon (3.78liters). My math failed me.
Anyways I’m looking forward to Jeff’s answers next week.
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I guess I should have stated in the question what I meant by ‘standard’ but it was intended to be part of the struggle in answering the question. (BTW I was thinking the ‘standard’ of 55 gallons.)
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What vinolove said… I knew it it was Chaptalizaiton, it was named after someone, and that it’s used to boost alcohol to cover up for weak harvests. Beyond that, stumped.
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Classic Hedonist!
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1. Chaptalization
2. Named after developer Jean Antoine Claude Chaptal
3. It is done in the cold-climate areas to have more sugar for the yeast to be converted into alcohol
4. 21 Brix will give you a perfect 12% ABV – why bother : ) But you will need about 20 lb considering standard 225L barrel
5. Chaptalization is legal in Oregon, Champagne and Switzerland.
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Thanks Anatoli! Unfortunately, no give away here!
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1. Chaptalization
2. Jean Antoine Claude Chaptal
3. ???
4. ???
5. Orgeon, Champagne & Switzerland.
That was too hard :s
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Thanks for playing Frank!
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