Test Your Wine Q

A little wine knowledge can be a fun thing. Impress yourself with how much you know:

1) Who do we have to thank for creating White Zinfandel in the early 1970s?
a) Derek Farrah
b) Karl Isberg
c) Bob Trinchero of Sutter Home

2) When it comes to syrah and shiraz...
a) They are lyrics in that old Doris Day song: "Kay syrah, shiraz -- whatever will be, will be."
b) Syrah is a red grape found in France's Rhone region and shiraz is a pink grape found in Australia.
c) They are the same grape called different names dependent upon growing region.

3) Define the French term "terroir":
a) What you feel when you pull up to pump your gas.
b) Suddenly realizing that you're fresh out of wine and it's Sunday.
c) The combination of soil, topography and weather conditions of a wine growing region.

4) If you were a Pinotage, where would you be hanging?
a) Excuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me?
b) Between pink and mauve on the Martha Stewart color wheel.
c) In a South African vineyard.

5) When dining out, smelling the cork from your bottle of wine tells you:
a) If the wine is defective.
b) The relative age of the wine.
c) Nothing, but it tells everyone else that you're a pretentious boob.

6) A punt is:
a) What a football team does after blowing the first three downs.
b) What you do when you have forgotten something important like a friend's name, lover's birthday. Also called "CYA".
c) The indentation on the bottom of still and sparkling wine bottles.

7) Malolactic fermentation is:
a) What happens to all the old milk you never toss from your refrigerator.
b) That cop involved in the OJ Simpson trial.
c) A secondary fermentation process in white wine making wherein the tart, crisp, malic (apple) acid in the grapes is softened and made to taste more like butter or milk (lactic).

8) "Sur lie" means:
a) The attitude some people display when they dine out and can't find one good wine by the glass on the menu.
b) The attitude other people display when they can't find one reasonably priced bottle of wine on the menu.
c) Aging the wine after fermentation on the dead yeast cells, grape skins and pulp, imparting a rich and toasty character.

Answer Key:
The correct answer is always "c". If you scored eight out of eight, you are a Wine Whisperer. If you scored less than eight correctly, you have a great sense of humor and wonderful taste in newspapers.

I tend to whine a lot about the year-to-year variation in some of my favorite bottles of wine. I know that the word "vintage" refers to the yield of wine (or grapes) from a vineyard (or district) in one specific growing season (or year). I realize that growers and winemakers have many fickle, nature and weather-related conditions thwarting their ability to replicate a consistent taste. But who wants excuses when you've purchased a wine that you usually love and find your nose and mouth making involuntary rodent face gestures?

I know am not the only one who makes the rodent face when confronted with a loser wine. In an effort to elicit a human smile from your face instead of a twitching rat nose, here are two reasonably priced selections that consistently gratify, year to year. I have been enjoying both for decades and have never once opened a bottle, regardless of vintage, that was not fully pleasing:

Sterling 2005 Vintner's Collection Sauvignon Blanc, Central Coast ($11) -- I loved this wine when I worked in Napa in 1990 and I love it today. Ten years ago this summer I sat in the Greenhouse Restaurant for the first time and found that it was one of the few white wines by the glass on the menu bearing a name that I recognized. I loved the 1995 that night and made a mental note to self to eat at the Greenhouse a lot. Sterling crafts a moderately priced sauvignon blanc that is extremely refreshing, crisp, clean and very food-friendly. The acidity is always pitch-perfect for me with a lengthy and satisfying finish. The vibrant citrus flavors lean closer to the lemon-lime/orange blossom side of the scale than the too-pungent grapefruit side. Bless them for their 100% stainless steel fermentation choice -- two flavors I abhor in a sauvignon blanc are vanilla-soaked oak and enough grass to feed a herd of elk.

Laurel Glen 2003 REDS ($10) -- This is one of my top five favorite California red blends. I'm not usually a big fan of the zinfandel grape as it can be so intense and overpowering that I almost feel allergic, but here, when blended with carignane and petite sirah, it so works! My tasting notes from the 2000 are nearly identical to those for the 2003: Dark black cherry, plum, anise spice, cedar, tobacco, chocolate. Mocha coffee and meaty leather, but in a good way. The wine reveals itself layer-by-layer with each sip as the palate warms up. This is one opulent and complex red wine for the price.

In the Broadening My Wine Horizons file, I was in New Mexico last month and stopped in a wine store. I asked the owner to recommend his favorite value red from any region. He asked what I look for in a red. (Good question indicating a professional merchant who will calibrate his suggestion to my palate, not his.) I told him fruit-forward, intense cherry/berry flavors, medium-bodied, smooth tannins. He led me to Altos Las Hormigas 2005 Colonia Las Liebres Bonarda. I learned that Bonarda is a grape with origins in Italy and the most widely planted red grape in Argentina, homeland of this bottle.The wine was spicy and rich with coffee/toffee and anise/licorice flavors. I got my dark black cherry fruit fix and found the medium body and firm tannins I sought. A few weeks later it showed up in the May 15 Wine Spectator as a Best Buy, albeit with a suggested retail ($8) lower than I paid ($9.50). Overall, a very pleasant discovery that left me proud of my courageous step out of my New World Wine Box.