Q 01/05

In 1954 Châteauneuf-du-Pape's village council passed a still-valid law banning what from landing in its vineyards?

A) Planes

B) Gliders

C) UFOs

D) Balloons

Answer · why

C) UFOs

UFOs have been banned from Châteauneuf-du-Pape's airspace since 1954, when tales of 'flying cigars' over the vines became a media sensation. Local pol...

Q 02/05

Pinot Noir's name comes from the shape of its tightly clustered bunches, which are said to resemble what?

A) A horse's tail

B) A pine cone

C) An acorn cap

D) A teardrop

Answer · why

B) A pine cone

A pine cone is what the tight bunches recall, hence 'pinot' from the French for pine, while 'noir' simply describes the black berries.

Q 03/05

As phylloxera ravaged France's vines in the late 1800s, which folk remedy did desperate growers try before grafting won?

A) Church bells rung every night

B) A live toad under each vine

C) Garlic between the rows

D) Whitewash on the trunks

Answer · why

B) A live toad under each vine

A live toad under each vine was one desperate cure tried during the Great French Wine Blight, alongside letting poultry roam to eat the insects. Graft...

Q 04/05

Which Duke of Burgundy outlawed the 'disloyal' Gamay grape in 1395, cementing Pinot Noir's hold on the Côte d'Or?

A) Charles the Bald

B) John the Fearless

C) Philip the Bold

D) Louis the Pious

Answer · why

C) Philip the Bold

Philip the Bold banned Gamay in July 1395 as a 'disloyal' plant of 'very great and horrible harshness', pushing it south to Beaujolais, where it thriv...

Q 05/05

Merlot's name is thought to be a diminutive of 'merle', the French word for which bird?

A) Blackbird

B) Nightingale

C) Starling

D) Sparrow

Answer · why

A) Blackbird

Blackbird is what 'merle' means in French, and Merlot was probably named for the blue-black colour the grape shares with the bird's plumage.