The Culture of Wine Quiz
posted by Rodolphe in Wine, Guest Bloggers
1. Wine in Music
What did Jay-Z swear off after the winery’s managing director Frederic Rouzaud told The Economist magazine that he was unimpressed that the expensive beverage has become popular in rap circles. Rouzaud said, “[Its] unwelcome attention. What can we do? We can’t forbid people from buying it. I’m sure Dom Perignon or Krug would be delighted to have their business.”
2. Wine in Film
In the 2004 movie “Sideways” Miles and Jack embark on a road trip through the wine country of what valley?
In the 2006 film, “A Good Year,” Londoner Max Skinner inherits his uncle’s estate in what European wine region?
3. Celebrity Wine
Which celebrity does not own a winery?
Greg Norman
Francis Ford Coppola
Mario Andretti
Ernie Els
Olivia Newton John
Robert Redford
4. Wine & Religion
Wine was such an important part of life in ancient Greece that they had a god of wine. What was his name?
5. The Politics of Wine
The White House has a bowling alley and nu-cu-lar bunker, but it doesn’t have a wine cellar! So much for showing off some Old Vine Zinfandel or well-aged Napa Cabernet the next time Sarkozy or Putin shows up unannounced.
Although JFK and Jackie O loved their Bordeaux and Nixon craved Champagne, in today’s White House all wines served must be _________ ?
Bonus Question – Wine in Literature
Alexandre Dumas’ Three Musketeers are named Athos, Athos, Porthos and Aramis – which Musketeer shares his name with a winery in Mclaren Vale?
Rodolphe Boulanger is President of The Wine Messenger, an online wine retailer focussed on small grower wines. Rodolphe is also currently a diploma student at the WSET in London.
No one going to make a start on this one? I feel like I can do ok on this. Either 3.5 or 4.5 and I would fail on the bonus question
1. Cristal
2a. Santa Barbara
2b. Luberon
3. Robert Redford
4. Dionysus
5. American
B. Aramis
Re the first question, it should be occasionally be mentioned that the Rouzaud (mis)quote “[Its] unwelcome attention..” that initiated Jay-Z’s outrage was never said, but a subheading by The Economist’s journalist that snuck itself citations often enough to become “the public’s truth”. It is quite scary how this is possible..
The man was posed a negatively loaded question and gave a bemused answer, constrained in the print interview to solicit controversy. If someone judges the Rouzaud statements to be racist, let it at least be based on facts.
@Tobias - good catch. I think few people (besides Jay-Z) construed these comments as rascist. The question is about the wine and the silly boycott.
Readers interested in reading more about this (and reading the correct quote), should look at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5056744.stm
If by monday no one’s started i’m writing my answers in here
oh, i realized i’d missed Dan’s attempt:. OK, well without peeking at Dans:
1 Cristal
2 dont know, but south of San Fran for sure and Tuscany?
3 Trick question? Greg Norman, who has wines with his name on, but doesnt own a winery
4 Bacchus
5 American, or Californian maybe
bonus = no idea, but surely i should get 0.33 points as there are only 3 answers
too easy
I think I can do a bit better on this quiz than the last one. And this time I wasn’t even tempted to use the internet to look up answers. Although, I have guessed on a couple of answers.
1. Louis Roderer - Cristal
2. Paso Robles & Santa Barbra, Bordeaux
3. Olivia Newton John
4. Dionysus
5. American? I do know that Hartford Family Wines and Iron Horse have been used
Bonus: Hmmm … I’ll go with Aramis
@scroll … I think Rodolphe is taking it easy on us this time. His last quiz on Italy had all of us stumped. By the way, we didn’t see your answers!
1. Cristal
2. Santa Barbara, Burgundy
3. Olivia Newton John
4. Bacchus
5. American
Bonus. Athos?
When do we get the answers Mr Boulanger?
I was waiting for Mark to chime in with his answers. Here goes:
1. The answer, of course, is Cristal
http://www.snooth.com/search/cristal
Jay-Z’s favorite tipple is now the even more expensive “Ace of Spades”
http://www.snooth.com/search/armand+de+brignac
I wonder whether Beyoncé prefers it too?
1 point to Dan, Philip, John and Mark
2. I had asked for a valley in the Sideways question – the Santa Ynez Valley. Santa Barbara gets only ½ credit. As for Max Skinner, his inheritance was in Provence, or, specifically, in the Luberon, although I am not sure that is ever specified in the movie. This totally unheralded wine-flick was shot in the Luberon and provides good insight into why our very own Philip left the high finance world of London.
¾ point to Dan, ¼ point to Mark & John
3. Perhaps Robert Redford is too busy with Sundance? We are waiting for him to show the world the vinous potential of Utah’s Wasatch range!
Greg Norman – With partners Beringer Blass, Greg’s created one of Australia’s biggest names
http://www.snooth.com/search/greg+norman
Francis Ford Coppola – Transformed Gustave Niebaum’s property into one of the best!
http://www.snooth.com/search/niebaum+coppola
Mario Andretti – His racing skill has yet to rub off in Napa.
http://www.snooth.com/search/andretti
Ernie Els – What else can you sink your money into in South Africa?
http://www.snooth.com/search/ernie+els
Olivia Newton John has Koala Blue – a newish Australian brand
http://www.snooth.com/search/koala+blue
1 point to Dan
4. Dionysus or Dionysos was the Greek god of wine and intoxication. In Rome, he was known as Bacchus.
1 point to John and Dan, ½ to Mark and Philip.
5. In the late 1960s, LBJ declared that all wines served at the White House must be American. Subsequent Presidents have yet to modify this (although Nixon is famous for drinking French Champagne while everyone else at the state dinner had bubbly from California).
Philip - serving only California wine would be unfair to the wines of the great state of North Dakota, don’t you think?
1 point to Dan, Philip, Mark & John
Bonus. A quick Snooth search reveals that the Australian winery is indeed named Aramis, Porthos is the name of a retailer in San Rafael, CA and poor Athos shares his name with an autonomous monastic state in Greece… which may or may not produce wine.
http://www.snooth.com/search/aramis
1 point to Dan and John
So the final scores are:
5 ¾ points – Dan stomps all over this “easier” quiz.
4 ¼ points – John running in second…again!
2 ¾ points – Mark shows off his newfound knowledge
2 ½ points – Philip is downgraded from “hold” to “sell” after failing to meet expectations.
-1,543,261 points - Sroll for complaining that it was easy, yet not submitting answers!
Hoo boy! Nice going, Dan. I need to step it up in the future.
Maybe Sroll can make up the deficit on the next (harder?) one?
Wow, that sucks. I have pinned all my hopes on my upcoming CSW studies to get me out of this pit
A quick heads up - we’ll be going South of the Border next time for the “Wines of the Americas that aren’t from the USA or Canada” quiz
WOOHOO, I’m number two! And it’s better than a passing grade!
Oh yeah, I’m going to share this quiz with my wine tasting group to see how they do.