There are ten questions in each category, moving from nice and easy to devilishly difficult. There are no prizes, just the satisfaction of knowing that you’re pretty wine-smart if you manage to get them all right. Answers next week. Good luck!

Nice and Easy

1. Cava is a sparkling wine made in which country?

2. If you order a Rosado wine, what colour would you expect it to be?

3. What gives wine its colour — is it the grape skins or the grape flesh?

4. Coonawarra is a wine producing area in which country?

5. Name just one of the three most commonly used grapes in Champagne production.

6. Where in the world are the Blossom Hill wines made?

7. Moet et Chandon and Taittinger are both famous names of what?

8. The Andes sit between which two wine-producing countries?

9. What is Prosecco?

10. How many centilitres of wine are there in a magnum?

Moderately Challenging

1. Who wrote the controversial book The Great Wine Swindle: How snobs are running your wine

2.What is ‘vendange verte’

3. Manzanilla, Oloroso and Fino are all styles of what?

4. In which grape-growing US state is the Willamette Valley?

5. Cassis is typically added to white wine made from which grape, to make kir?

6. In 2007 Louis Roederer bought which Bordeaux estate?

7. What is the grape variety used to make Sancerre?

8. Which Australian winery makes the iconic Hills of Grace?

9. Pelorus is the sparkling wine of which world-famous estate?

10. The name of which grape variety has a literal translation of ‘little sweet one’?

Devilishly Difficult

1. Plavac Mali and Babic are red grape varieties found in which country?

2. What is the name of the flat-bottomed boats that were traditionally used to transport port along the Duoro River?

3. Where would you find the tiny appellation of Rosette and what sort of wine is made there?

4. What is a ‘serpette’?

5. Where in the world are Miquel Olivier and Miquel Gelabert making top-class wines?

6. Uva Abruzzi is one of several synonyms of which Italian grape variety?

7. Paul Pontallier is MD of which famous Bordeaux estate?

8. Name the four grape varieties in Michel Rolland’s Argentine, Clos de los Siete wine.

9. Which estate’s website includes the following, thought-provoking line: “Let us first point out the obvious and suggest that the term ‘winemaking’ is in fact specious; the winemaker does not ‘make’ the wine, any more than he (or she) is responsible for converting the sunlight that strikes the leaves of the grapevines into sugars and more complex flavour components elaborated within the grapevine. The yeast themselves must be the primary suspects, vis-à-vis ‘winemakers’, but at a minimum, we can propose that ‘winemaking’ is somewhat of a group effort.”

10. When talking about their grapes, you might hear the French word ‘rafle’. What does it mean?

Hope you enjoyed the quiz! I wish you a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year.