Fun Day with Sangiovese

Wine Trivia (answers at bottom)

1.  What is a fiasco, when it’s not a complete failure?

A.  A straw covered chianti bottle

B.  A harvest festival

C.  A vine training system

D.  A type of wine press

2. How much alcohol does the average American consume annually (from the WHO data – Global Status Report on Alcohol)?

A.  about 5 liters, or about 6 bottles

B.  about 10 liters, or about 13 bottles

C.  about 15 liters, or about 20 bottles

D. about 25 liters, or about 33 bottles

(some folks have some catching up to do)

3. Chianti is the name of:

A.  A style & region

B.  A grape

C.  A city

D.  A basket press

4.  When Julius Caesar conquered Gaul (part of present-day France) in 50 BCE, he didn’t just acquire new styles of viticulture and new varieties of grapes.  He also adopted a new wine storage and shipping container to replace the amphora.  What wine aging technology did he bring home to Rome?

A.  the glass bottle 

B.  the wine barrel

C.  the flask

D.  cement casks

5. In the 14th Century what type of tradesmen were given elevated status in Venice, Italy to allow them to marry into nobility and adorn swords? 

A. Cork makers

B.  Winemakers

C.  Basket press makers

D.  Glassmakers

Quote of the week:

“We are all mortal until the first kiss

And the second glass of wine.” – Eduardo Galeano

Painting of the Week

Still Life Grapes at the Villa Medici

Bartolomeo Bimbi, was an artist who painted and documented in horticultural detail, a wide variety of fruit, including differences in grape species. In the 1700’s Bartolomeo Bimbi painted Poggio a Caiano (Prato) or Still Life Grapes at the Villa Medici for the Grand Duke Cosimo de Medici.  In 1716, Cosimo established the Chianti Classico zone (est 1716) between Siene and Florence but the DOCG (Denominazione Origine Controllata e Garantita) status wasn’t internationally recognized until in 1963.  The Vino Nobile Montepulciano was established in 1925. Toscana IGT (Indicazione Geographica Tipica) describes Super Tuscans in the Vienna Act of 1992.

Song of the Week:

Scenes from an Italian Restaurant by Billy Joel (1977)

“A bottle of red, a bottle of white, 

It all depends upon your appetite.”

Poem of the Week:

I’m proud to be an American.  I’m also glad that I am living at this time when I see the wrongs of the world and I try to right them for a better future for my sons.  I have freedoms and luxuries that most humans do not have. I am grateful for all that I have.  But, if I could have been born in any other place in any other time, it would have been the Renaissance era in Italy.  The clothing was beautiful.  The architecture was meaningful and magnificent.  The art from the music to the paintings and sculptures was unlike any other place or time.  There are places that stand still.  The reached a point in time and stopped.  The world stopped changing around these little corners of the world to be our artifacts of history.  There are movies that remind us of a different way of life and different places.  One movie, Letters To Juliet (2010), does just that.  With much of it set in vineyards and around Italy, it’s absolutely beautiful.  The movie starts when a girl named Sophie reads a letter stuck in the wall beneath Juliet’s Balcony in Verona.  Sophie answers the 50 year-old letter about the concept of “What If”?   It’s the kind of movie that reminds you that anything is possible:  your dreams, goals, and above all true love.  It just takes a long time sometimes.  But never ever stop believing, because, well, what if?

Answers to Trivia

1.  A.  Fiasco literally means a bottle or flask in Italian. The round base covered in straw helped to prevent breakage during travels.  15^th Century Botticelli paintings are the earliest depictions the bottle shape.  In the 18th century, when wine was used in plays and were broken during the performance, it was called a fiasco!  After that, anytime a play was either poorly attended or not well performed, the play itself was then called a fiasco.  Thus, it may not be a good thing to be named after a bottle of wine.

2.  A.  The average American only consumes a total of 5 liters of alcohol annually, with 50% of that being beer!   Colder states out drink states like Nevada, where alcohol is free in the casinos.  That puts us between 48^th and 55th place worldwide ranking (fluctuates with the economy).  Come on America!  We can do better! France is in 18^th place.  Spain is the leading producer of grapes in the world and is in 28^th place.  Even Canada beats us with their 40^th place.  But, the Pope makes up for the average population.  He enjoys about 56 liters a year. 

3. A.  A wine style from a region within Tuscany.  In 1384, there was a great race to end the feud between Florence and Siena.  To be called Chianti, it must have 80% of the indigenous grape, Sangiovese.   In 1716, the Grand Duke Cosimo De Medici wanted the wines to compete with other world-renowned wines.  He created the term, Chianti Classico, which determined that the wines had to be from the hillsides and aged for 2 years.  Thus, when you’re looking for a quality Chianti with cherry notes, earth tones and bright acidity, look for Florence’s rooster on the bottle with (from) “DAL 1716”. 

4. B.  The Celts, who were a collection of tribes, invented the wooden barrel bound by metal hoops for transporting goods between tribes approximately 800-700 BCE.  They were known as the Galli, meaning Barbarians, who controlled the area of Great Britain and Ireland.  They moved into the region of France that became called the Gauls, wherein the barrels were used for storing beer. The Romans encountered the Celts on their travels on the Carpis and Alpis Rivers flowing from the Carpathian and Alps Mountains.  Julius Caesar invaded the Gauls and by the 1^st Century AD, European oak wine barrels were common in Rome. Barrel shipping became so widespread that during the reign of Caesar Justinian (527-565 AD) in Istanbul, Turkey, a rainwater barrel was built that still stands today (holding 21 million gallons).  

5. D.  Glassmakers.  Master glassmakers on the island of Murano, during the Byzantine Empire made the most well-made glass in Europe.  The Venetians preferred it as there had been the Great Fire of Venice in 1105 which destroyed 23 churches and threatened their livelihood.  France and Germany were envious and tried bribing glassmakers to move to their countries.