SUMMER WINE AND FOOD

Wine quiz

Burgundy to Keats

Ausonius

Three prizes will be awarded for the best three sets of answers received at the Spectator by 19 July. The first prize is a magnum of Jeanmaire 1979 vintage rosé champagne, kindly donated by H. Allen Smith. Second prize is a place on an autumn wine-tasting at Sotheby's, to be chaired by David Molyneux-Berry MW. Third prize is victuals to the value of £25 from Sabins Delicatessen of Dorchester, to be collected or dispatched as desired. Ausonius will be sole and final arbiter of the competition: no correspondence will be entered into. Entries should be addressed to The Spectator Wine Quiz, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1. The right answers and a report will appear in a subsequent issue.

Section A (questions mainly concern- ing red wines) 1. Which is the lesser of these two appella- tions controlees from Burgundy (a) Bour- gogne (b) Bourgogne Grand Ordinaire? 2. Rioja is so called because (a) it is a corruption of rojo, the Spanish word for red (b) it is named after the small rio Oj a, a tributary of the Ebro (c) it is a Basque exclamation meaning 'The wine is good'? 3. Is Recioto Amarone della Valpolicella (a) an Italian dessert of bitter almond cake flavoured with Valpolicella (b) a special kind of Valpolicella red wine made from selected, partly dried grapes (c) a cheese made in the Valpolicella region with a distinctive bitter flavour?

4. Is Bin 707 Cabernet (a) a wine made by Robert Mondavi and sold exclusively to TWA (b) the top Cabernet from Penfold's, the Australian firm who make Grange Hermitage (c) Joe Heitz's 'family reserve'?

5. Find a connection between Jean-Paul Sartre, the Medoc and Yves St Laurent (apart from the fact they are all French).

Section B (questions mainly concern- ing white wines) 1. Which English monarch has a vineyard named after him or her at Hochheim in the Rheingau?

2. In which wine region might you find the Pinot Beurot grape (a) Alsace (b) Burgun- dy (c) South Africa?

3. Which is the odd one out of these three (dry) white wines from the Loire (a) Vouvray sec (b) Sancerre (c) Savennieres?

4. What is the link between (a) the dry white wine of Château d'Yquem (b) the owner of Château Margaux (c) Château Carras?

5. Which is the odd one out of these three white burgundies (a) Chassagne- Montrachet (b) Chevalier-Montrachet (c) Puligny-Montrachet?

Section C (questions concerning spark- ling wines) 1. Which is generally considered to have been the first type of wine made by the champagne method (a) champagne (b) Blanquette de Limoux (c) Clairette de Die?

2. Do the letters R.D. on a champagne label stand for (a) Rich Dessert (b) Recem- ment Degorge (c) Rien de Dosage?

3. Which is the biggest producer of methode champenoise wines in the world (a) Codorniu (b) Moet et Chandon (c) Freixenet?

4. Apart from Parellada, two other grape varieties are used to make cava (the Spanish sparkling wine from the Penedes region in Catalonia): name one of them.

5. What is the term used in Champagne for the removal of rotting or damaged grapes from bunches?

Section D (questions concerning forti- fied wines and brandies) 1. Is Malmsey so called because (a) it is a corruption of Monemvasia, the town in the Peloponnese where the grape from which it is made originates (b) it is grown on the kind of light, loamy soil called maim (c) it was a favourite wine of the Empress Josephine, frequently served in her Château de Malmaison?

2. Is Quinta do Noval Nacional disting- uished by (a) being made from native grape varieties only (b) being reserved for the Portuguese market (c) being made from pre-phylloxera vines?

3. Is Axarquia (a) a type of Greek brandy (b) a sub-division of the Malaga wine region (c) the Sardinian term for grappa? 4. Which French spirit has a connection with the fourth Musketeer (a) Armagnac (b) Cognac (c) Calvados?

5. When they talk about 'the angels' share' in Cognac do they mean (a) the vapour which escapes during distillation (b) the spirit which evaporates from the casks during maturation (c) a barrel of cognac distributed to townspeople every year on the Feast of the Assumption?

Section E (literary questions) 1. Of which wine does Mistress Quickly say to Doll Tearsheet, 'That's a marvellous searching wine, and it perfumes the blood ere one can say, "What's this?" ' (a) sherris-sack (b) Canaries (c) claret?

2. Complete the following piece of advice about winemanship: 'Be vague by being literary. Talk of the "imperial —" (one word) of your invalid port.'

3. What, according to Roland Barthes, is the opposite drink to wine?

4. In the Book of Revelation's prophecy of " the destruction of Babylon, what substan- ces precede and follow wine in the lists of things which will perish?

5. Complete this quotation from a letter by Keats: 'I like — (one word) . . . For really 'tis so fine — it fills one's mouth with a gushing freshness — then goes down cool and feverless -- then you do not feel it quarrelling with your liver . . .