Try a Wine Trivia Quiz!

Though retired, The Wine Guy works part-time at wine retailing. It’s fun and keeps me in contact with a lot of elements of the wine-trade, most importantly, the consuming public. I regularly run into customers asking for help in hosting wine parties, tasting events and wine-club gatherings.

One of the most fun-filled activities at such gatherings is conducting a wine trivia quiz. Simply divide your guests into teams, hand out some preprinted quiz sheets and offer a prize (a bottle of wine to share) to the team with the most points. Your quiz should offer both puzzlers and easy to answer questions. It should also stimulate conversation and discussion about wine. Feel free to make up your own, or simply use The Wine Guy’s sample trivia quiz I’ve included as part of today’s blog..

Try taking the test yourself before looking at the answers below….I hope you have fun with it!


1. Which still red wine doesn’t like to be blended with others?
A. Malbec B. Sangiovese C. Pinot Noir D. Tempranillo

2. What wine producing country also is the largest producer of the olive oil?
A. Greece B. France C. Spain D. Italy

3. Which American President built a wine cellar under the White House and bought more than 20,000 bottles of European wine?
A. John Kennedy B. John Quincy Adams C. Thomas Jefferson D. Ronald Reagan

4. The vintage date on a bottle of wine refers to the year:
A. the wine was bottled. B. the grapes were harvested. C. the wine was released.
D. when the wine can be first consumed.

5. Zinfandel came into prominence in California and is often called California’s grape but it originated in Croatia. What European grape varietal is almost genetically identical to Zinfandel?
A. Tempranillo B. Trebbiano C. Primativo D.Negromaro

6. A Standard bottle of wine is 750ml, but wine comes in many sizes of bottles. Which is a correct name for a different size bottle of wine?
A. Magnum B. Jeroboam C. Piccolo D. All of these

7. Who sang and popularized the song “That Little Old Winemaker, Me”?
A. Tom T. Hall B. Dean Martin C. Roger Miller D. Robert Mondavi

8. Which President had wine at the White House poured from napkin-draped bottles in order to hide the fact that he preferred French to American made wines?
A. Lyndon Johnson B. Richard Nixon C. Bill Clinton D. George W. Bush

9. The oldest winery in North America still producing wine today is located:
A. in Florida B. in Mexico C. in Texas D. in Canada

10. Pinotage from South Africa is made from a hybrid grape that resulted from crossing Pinot Noir with:
A. Syrah B. Meritage C. Cinsault D. Grenache

11. Which of the following is NOT a popular wine grape in South America?
A. Torrontes B. Podkum C. Bonarda D. Carmenere

12. What is the most common blending grape utilized for Syrah based wines from the Northern Rhone Valley in France?
A. Grenache B. Viognier C. Mourvedre D. Malbec

13. A “punt” refers to:
A. the headstock from an oak wine barrel. B. the straw basket covering some flasks of Chianti.
C. the indentation in the bottom of some wine bottles D. a kick when you’re fourth and long in football.

14. “Soave” is which of the following:
A. an Italian red wine B. an Italian white wine C. an Italian sparkling wine
D. an Italian wine toasting expression

15. Which grape is considered to be the mostly widely grown grape in the world?
A. Chardonnay B. Merlot C. Grenache D. Cabernet Sauvignon

Always have at least one tiebreaker question that counts only if teams are tied after the quiz is scored. Here’s a great, fun tiebreaker:

Which French appellation has a law that forbids the landing of flying saucers in the region’s vineyards?
A. Bordeaux B. Cotes du Rhone C. Burgundy D. Chateauneuf du Pape

Now for the answers:

1. The answer is C. Pinot Noir. This grape has a lot of expressions in still red wine but doesn’t play (sic blend) well with other red grapes. There is a notable exception….Give extra credit to any team that points out that when peeled to make a white wine, Pinot Noir is often blended with others in making sparkling wines.

2. The answer is D. Spain    They do well at both!  (author's note:  I got called on this one after the quiz had been up almost two years!!! I originally had Greece which at one time actually grew the most olives but even that was incorrect at the time of posting because I was referencing info that was over a decade old at the time...poor research and my bad!)

3. The answer is C. Thomas Jefferson. He grew grapes and made wine on his Virginia estate but he loved the French wines, a hangover (no pun intended) from his days as Ambassador to France from the Continental Congress.

4. The answer is B. when the grapes were harvested. A non-vintage wine will include grapes from multiple harvests. That occurs frequently in ports and sparkling wines but some others, as well.

5. The answer is C. Primativo. It is a virtual genetic twin and has many of the same characteristics. However the terroir and wine making in Italy results in a somewhat different but thoroughly enjoyable wine.

6. The answer is D. All of these. Magnums are 1.5 ltr, Jeroboams range 3 to 4.5 ltr and Piccolo is used in Italy to describe 187.5 ml bottles.

7. The answer is B. Dean Martin. Mrs. Wine Guy has the song on one of her Dean Martin albums.

8. The answer is B. Richard Nixon. Lyndon Johnson was the first President to have only American made wines served at the White House. Nixon didn’t want to publicly overthrow the practice but he loved French wines. He didn’t get the nickname “Tricky Dick” Nixon for nothing, did he?

9. The answer is B. Mexico. The winery is called Casa Madero and production there dates to the late 1590’s. They make a very respectable Merlot and a Merlot-Nebbiolo blend that The Wine Guy enjoys.

10. The answer is C. Cinsault. This grape was called Hermitage in South Africa thus the name Pinotage to the newly created varietal.

11. The answer is B. Podkum. Podkum is a grape varietal developed to grow in the tropical lowlands of Thailand, a country that has a rising wine industry and is one of the leaders in “New Latitude” wines.

12. The answer is B. Viognier. Grenache and Mourvedre are commonly blended in Syrah but mostly in wines from the Southern Rhone Valley (it’s o.k. to throw one or two trick questions). Viognier is one of the few white grapes that behaves well when blended with reds and even the Australians are utilizing it as a blending finisher in their Shirazes.

13. The answer is C. the indentation in the bottom of some bottles of wine. (Also found in the bottom of many decanters) It is thought by some to be a tradition holdover from the days of glass blown bottles and by others to be utilized in trapping sediment. Sommeliers and waiters love it as a great place to put their thumb for one-handed pouring and twisting of a bottle of wine.

14. The answer is B. an Italian white wine. This wine hails from the Veneto region of Italy and Gargangea is the informing grape. It’s dry, crisp, and meant to be drunk very young. It has sometimes been almost lacking in flavor but recent expressions with care to some good blending and moderate use of oak have produced some excellent value priced wines.

15. The answer is C. Grenache. Cabernet Sauvignon is the world’s most consumed varietal but Grenache is grown in more places and appears in the greatest number of wines. It finds its way into a lot of wines as a blending and finishing grape. It finds its best expression as a dominant or single grape in many of the wines from Spain.

Extra Credit Question:
The answer is D. Chateauneuf du Pape. The law was passed in 1954 during the beginning of the UFO craze. To the best of my knowledge, there’s never been an arrest made.


Hope you had fun with the quiz. If you use it at an event at your house, drop a line to rogerthewineguy@gmail.com and let me know how your guests enjoyed it.