Weinquiz

Printable wine quizzes

Red or white?

The colour in the glass: where it comes from, how rosé is made, how to serve red and white, and what matters at the table.

12 questions · answers on page 2

Two A4 pages: the questions first, then the answers. The print dialogue can also save it as a PDF.

Weinquiz · Printable

Red or white?

NamePoints/ 12

Keep playing on your phone Scan to play the “Tasting & the senses” quiz. A free account keeps your points and your streak.

  1. Where does a red wine’s colour come from?

    1. A From the pips
    2. B From the pulp
    3. C From the grape skins
    4. D From the stems

  2. Which of these grape varieties is white?

    1. A Merlot
    2. B Chardonnay
    3. C Cornalin
    4. D Gamaret

  3. Which of these Italian grape varieties is red?

    1. A Glera
    2. B Garganega
    3. C Barbera
    4. D Vermentino

  4. When is white wine classically pressed compared with red wine?

    1. A Both before fermentation
    2. B White before fermentation, red after it
    3. C Both only after fermentation
    4. D White after fermentation, red before it

  5. Which serving temperature suits a light, fresh white wine such as Chasselas?

    1. A 4–6 °C
    2. B 8–10 °C
    3. C 12–14 °C
    4. D 16–18 °C

  6. True or false: Ticino’s Bianco di Merlot is made from the red Merlot grape.

    1. A True
    2. B False

  7. How is most rosé Champagne made?

    1. A By adding a natural plant colouring
    2. B By blending with rosé from the south of France
    3. C From a special pink-skinned grape
    4. D By adding a little still red wine to the white wine

  8. True or false: red wines generally contain more sulphites than white wines.

    1. A True
    2. B False

  9. You want to serve a red wine with fish. What matters most?

    1. A Low tannin, served lightly chilled
    2. B At least ten years of bottle age
    3. C Plenty of tannin and barrique ageing
    4. D The highest possible alcohol

  10. True or false: in German-speaking Switzerland a “Federweisser” is a white wine made from red grapes.

    1. A True
    2. B False

  11. What happens in the saignée method of making rosé?

    1. A The grapes are pressed without skin contact
    2. B Red and white must are mixed
    3. C Part of the must is bled off early from a red must
    4. D The wine is decolourised after fermentation

  12. Red wine with seafood often leaves a fishy aftertaste. Which component of the wine is mainly responsible, according to a 2009 study?

    1. A Iron
    2. B Alcohol
    3. C Tannin
    4. D Sulphur

weinquiz.ch/en/printable/red-or-white/ · Answers and explanations on page 2

For the quizmaster

  1. Print page 1 for each person or team, and page 2 with the answers once, for the quizmaster.
  2. Pour the wine and allow ten to fifteen minutes: tick one answer per question, no looking it up on a phone.
  3. Swap sheets; the quizmaster reads out the answers and explanations. Each right answer scores a point.

Another round? The apéro round is for two to six players on a single phone: weinquiz.ch/party

  1. C From the grape skins

    The pigments (anthocyanins) sit in the skins; the pulp of almost every grape variety is pale. Red wine is made by fermenting the must in contact with the skins (maceration).

  2. B Chardonnay

    Chardonnay, the white grape of Burgundy, is grown in Switzerland mainly in Geneva, Vaud and Valais; Gamaret, Cornalin and Merlot are red.

  3. C Barbera

    Barbera is a red variety from Piedmont with high acidity and low tannin; Garganega (Soave), Glera (Prosecco) and Vermentino are white varieties.

  4. B White before fermentation, red after it

    For white wine the press separates the juice from the skins before fermentation; only the juice ferments. Red wine ferments on its skins, which give up colour and tannin, and is pressed only afterwards. An exception is orange wine: white grapes fermented on their skins like a red.

  5. B 8–10 °C

    Light whites are at their freshest at 8–10 °C, full, oak-aged whites at 10–12 °C. Served too cold, a wine closes up its aromas; too warm, it seems heavy and alcoholic.

  6. A True

    For Bianco di Merlot the red grapes are pressed gently and fermented without skin contact, so no colour reaches the must; the idea emerged in the 1980s.

  7. D By adding a little still red wine to the white wine

    Usually a little still red Champagne wine is blended into the white base wine before the second fermentation (assemblage). The alternative is saignée, where dark grapes macerate briefly with their skins.

  8. B False

    False. Tannins and pigments already protect red wine, so it needs less sulphur: the EU allows at most 150 mg/l for a dry red, 200 mg/l for a white or rosé, and 50 mg/l more from 5 g/l of residual sugar upwards.

  9. A Low tannin, served lightly chilled

    Hard tannins taste bitter and drying next to delicate fish; a light, low-tannin red such as Pinot Noir or Gamay, served at around 14 degrees, goes very well with salmon, tuna or grilled whitefish.

  10. A True

    Unlike in Germany, where Federweisser means fermenting must, in Switzerland the word denotes a blanc de noirs: usually Pinot Noir pressed immediately without skin contact, so the must stays pale. Fermenting must is called Sauser here.

  11. C Part of the must is bled off early from a red must

    After a few hours of maceration part of the lightly coloured juice is run off (“bled”): it becomes rosé, while the rest ferments with more skins per litre into a more concentrated red. The other classic rosé method is direct pressing of the grapes.

  12. A Iron

    Researchers at the Japanese company Mercian had wines tasted with dried scallops: the more iron a wine contained, the stronger the fishy aftertaste, as iron ions promote the formation of aldehydes from fish fat. Not the colour but the iron content is what counts.

weinquiz.ch/en/printable/red-or-white/

More printable quizzes

Games for a wine evening

Printable wine quizzes

Languages: Deutsch · Français · Italiano