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, then called 'flying cigars', were banned by the mayor's council in 1954 amid a French saucer craze; whether it was fear or a publicity stunt for...

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 'pin', French for pine; the same tightly packed clusters leave the thin-skinned grape...

Q 03/05

Which folk remedy did desperate French growers try against phylloxera before grafting finally beat it?

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 meant to draw out the 'poison'; the cure did nothing, and it took grafting onto resistant American rootstock to save t...

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 1395 as a 'disloyal' plant of 'very great and horrible harshness', pushing it south to Beaujolais, where it thrives to...

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; the grape may be named for its blue-black colour or for the birds' fondness for the ripe fruit, and nobody ...