Can You Match the Wine to Its Region of Origin?

October 19, 2009

Last week while attending Wine & Spirits Top 100 tasting, I realized that there are tons of wines out there that I'm not all that familiar with.

Since I figured you might feel the same way, I thought it would be fun to put together a quiz. I'll list a varietal and you tell me where it's from. Ready, go!

Source: Getty

5 Comments

3 years 29 weeks

OK, I got 100% score rate on the test but still, I have a couple of comments: Eiswein is not a regional wine, it's a technique of winemaking in which the grapes are usually left on the vineyard throughout the frost and harvested late when they are "frozen" or the water dried out of the grapes, making it high in alcohol and sugar content. This type of wine is made in Germany, Austria and Czech Republic among other countries and is made out of different "cepages", such as Gruner Veltliner, Riesling, Pinot Noir, Dornfelder or any other cepages which belong to the terroir of the abovementioned countries. As for Gruner Veltliner, although it may be a cepage of Austrian origin, it's native in Germany and Czech Republic or Slovakia too. There's no one and only terroir for it as the test suggested. The same goes for the previous test, which included Sauternes (perhaps Loupiac would be a bit harder to guess?), also 100% score. Gewurztraminer is also not of German origin. The Traminer wine family originates in North Italy and from there it spread to France (Alsace, known for Riesling and Gruner Veltliner), Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Switzerland... Also, there is absolutely no cepage which originates in USA, South America or Australia/ NZ. Remember, all wine cepages come from Europe, be it France, Italy or Germany/ Austria. The "new world" wines are products of export of the cepages outside of region of origin. Give us a real hard test which would include cepages that people don't know so that they can learn about wine (Petit Verdot, Viognier, Marsanne, Grenache Blanc, Pinot Meunier - champagne anyone?, Refosco, Freisa, Greco, Fiano, Rias Baixas, Feteasca Neagra, Irsai Oliver..). Just saying :-))

3 years 29 weeks

Languedoc is a region of France, not a grape variety.