There's No Red Port Left Trivia Quiz

Answer: wines

Produced in Spain from grapes grown in the autonomous communities of La Rioja and Navarre and the Basque province of Álava, Rioja wines have become almost synonymous with Spanish wine outside the country. The wine-growing tradition in La Rioja goes back to the time the Phoenicians arrived in the Iberian Peninsula, around 800 BC. In 1991, the region was awarded the prestigious D.O.Ca. (Denominación de origen calificada, or Qualified Designation of Origin), the highest category in Spanish wine regulations.

Rioja wines are traditionally produced with four red grape varieties (Tempranillo, Mazuelo, Graciano, and Garnacha tinta) and three white ones (Garnacha blanca, Viura, and Malvasía). In recent times, however, the use of additional varieties has been authorized. The wines - which can be red, white, or rosé - are aged in oak barrels, the top varieties (Gran Reserva) for as long as six years, possibly even longer.

A bottled version of the popular sangria punch, based on red Rioja wine, was created in the 1960 by Bodegas Rioja Santiago, and presented at the New York World's Fair in 1964.

Answer: wines

Produced in the Cuneo province of the northwestern Italian region of Piedmont, Barolo is a strong red wine made from the Nebbiolo grape, which is predominant in the region. Though regarded as one of Italy's greatest wines, and highly prized by oenophiles, it can also be an acquired taste because of its high tannic content (which was more pronounced in the past) and distinctive aroma of tar and roses, which require pairing with equally strong-tasting dishes such as roast meats. Barolo needs to be aged for at least three years, and will stand up to much longer aging, which lends it a characteristic brick-red tinge.

Barolo's history is closely linked to the House of Savoy, Italy's former royal house, and the first Prime Minister of unified Italy, Camillo Benso, conte di Cavour. In the mid-19th century, the latter played a major role in the development of Barolo by encouraging the adoption of more modern wine-making techniques in the region. In 1980, the Barolo region attained the prestigious DOCG (Denominazione di origine controllata e garantita, or Controlled and Guaranteed Designation of Origin) status, the highest classification granted in Italy to food and drink products.

Answer: wines

Chablis wines are produced in the northernmost part of the Burgundy region of France, in the department of Yonne. Grapes have been grown there since the Middle Ages, when vines were planted by Cistercian monks. Because of the area's cool climate, the dry white wines produced there are more acidic than fruity, with a distinctive taste that has been often called "flinty" or "steely". All Chablis wines are made from Chardonnay grapes, and are pale yellow in colour with a slight greenish tinge. They hold up well to aging - the top varieties, called Grand Cru, can age for over 15 years - acquiring a more mellow, delicate taste. Unlike other white wines from Burgundy, Chablis wines are rarely matured in oak barrels, and if they are it is for a very short time.

The Chablis region was granted AOC (Appellation d'Origine Côntrolée, or Controlled Origin Designation) status in 1938. In recent times, Chablis producers have been fighting to protect the designation from the encroachment of foreign wines (especially those from the Americas) made from Chardonnay grapes.

Answer: wines

Although the Malbec grape variety originally comes from the town of Cahors, in southwest France, in recent times its name has become synonymous with full-bodied red wines from Argentina, where this purple grape is grown in large parts of the country. In the province of Mendoza, located in the shadow of Aconcagua, South America's highest mountain, vineyards are found at altitudes of up to 1,100 m (3,600 ft) above sea level. Malbec grapes are also grown in Chile, various parts of the US, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Italy. So important has this grape variety become to the economy of Argentina that Malbec World Day is celebrated every year on 17 April - commemorating the day in 1853 when then-president Faustino Sarmiento appointed a French soil expert with the task of bringing new vines to Argentina. The celebration was established in 2011 by Wines of Argentina, the agency in charge of publicizing the country's wine production abroad.

With their deep purple colour, Malbec grapes produce very dark wines, which in France are often blended with wines made from other grape varieties. Compared to French Malbec wines, those from Argentina are softer, fruitier and considerably less tannic.

Answer: wines

Riesling is a white grape variety from the Rhine region of Germany - where it has been grown since the Middle Ages - characterized by high acidity and an aromatic, almost perfumed quality. Widely grown in Central Europe, as well as other major wine-producing regions outside Europe (including China), it produces dry, semi-sweet, sweet and sparkling white wines, whose character is strongly influenced by their place of origin.

Though Riesling wines are often drunk when still young, because of their high acidity they lend themselves to aging, even for relatively long periods of time: this is particularly true of sweet Riesling wines because of their high sugar content. The most prized of Riesling wines are late-harvest dessert wines, made from grapes left to hang on the vine for longer than normal, thus losing most of their water content - often due to the onset of a fungus known as "noble rot" (Botrytis cinerea). The extremely concentrated juice produces a complex, richly layered wine that can command very high prices.

Answer: beers

Owing its name to its popularity with porters and other working people, porter is a style of beer that originated in London in the early years of the 18th century. It traditionally owed its dark, almost black colour to the use of brown malt, which has now been replaced by the addition of a small quantity of black (roasted until almost charred) malt to pale malt. Very popular during the Industrial Revolution and for the whole of the 19th century, porter lost momentum in the WWII era, and production stopped for a few decades - until it was revived in the 1970s.

With the advent of microbreweries and home-brewing in the late 20th century, porter became fashionable once again. Now it can be found in a wide range of varieties, sometimes with the addition of chocolate, coffee, vanilla or other spices, or aged in bourbon barrels. Besides English, Irish, and American porter, a stronger, more robust style known as Baltic porter - originally made in England to be shipped to Northern Europe - is also available.

Stout, which is also a dark, strongly flavoured beer style, is derived from porter: indeed, it was originally named "stout porter", referring to its higher alcohol content.

Answer: beers

Lambic is a spontaneously fermented beer from the Zenne Valley, near the Belgian capital of Brussels. Unlike other beer styles, which use cultivated strains of brewer's yeast, this beer is fermented through exposure to wild yeasts and bacteria present in the air and in the barrels where the beer is stored. The result is a light-bodied brew whose tart flavour is reminiscent of cider or white wine. Lambic is brewed from barley malt and wheat, with the addition of dry, aged hops. A blend of old and young lambics, bottled for a second fermentation, is called gueuze, characteristically fizzy and sour, while faro is a low-alcohol blend to which sugar is added. Lambic is often brewed with the addition of fruit: the most common variety is kriek, made with sour cherries.

The origin of the name lambic is still unclear. Though the village of Lembeek, in the province of Flemish Brabant, has long claimed an association with the beer, according to another theory the name comes from "alembic", which is a kind of still used for distilling spirits.

Answer: beers

Märzen is the German name of the month of March. Märzen beer, a full-bodied lager from Bavaria, was traditionally brewed in the spring, put in cold storage during the summer, and enjoyed in the autumn - hence the name. From the 1870s to the 1990s, it was the main style of beer served at Munich's iconic Oktoberfest, until it was replaced as the official festival beer by the lighter Festbier. Despite its former popularity, this beer style has become rare in Germany, though it is also produced in some of its neighbouring countries (notably Austria, Poland, and Czech Republic).

Märzen is usually amber to dark brown in colour, and has a higher alcohol content than most pale lagers. It is characterized by a rich, malty taste and sweeter, less hoppy flavour.

Answer: beers

The acronym IPA stands for India Pale Ale, a beer style that originated in the UK in the late 18th century, when it was brewed to be exported to the Indian subcontinent. Though derived from traditional pale ales, in order to withstand the long sea voyage this beer style contained higher quantities of hops (a natural preservative), and had a higher alcohol content. The "India" in the name was retained even when the beer started being exported to other British colonies, such as Canada or Australia.

At the end of the 20th century, IPA underwent a revival, and is now one of the most globally popular beer styles. In the US, the IPA boom began on the West Coast, and then spread all over the country, where IPA has now become the dominant beer on the market. American IPAs tend to be very bitter in taste: a number of distinctive varieties have been developed in recent years, such as the stronger Double and Triple IPA, and the darker-coloured Black IPA, to which roasted malt is added.

Answer: beers

Though the German word Bock means "billy goat", there is no connection between this beer style and any horned farm animals. In fact, the name comes from the name of the town of Einbeck, in Lower Saxony, where this strong, dark beer was first brewed in the 14th century - which sounded like "ein Bock" when pronounced with a Bavarian accent. Adopted by Munich brewers in the 17th century, Bock beer was traditionally brewed by monks, for whom it was a source of nutrition during Lenten fasting.

A robust, malty lager, Bock comes in different substyles - of which Eisbock (ice Bock) is the most distinctive. It is produced by partially freezing a Doppelbock (a stronger version of Bock) to remove the water, thus obtaining a more concentrated, deep reddish-brown beer with a very high alcohol content. Some varieties of Eisbock can be as strong as a full-bodied red wine. Eisbock has a rich and sweet flavour, sometimes with fruity or chocolate notes. On the opposite end of the scale there is Maibock, a lighter, drier lager brewed for spring festivals.

Answer: spirits

Shōchū is a Japanese spirit distilled from a variety of starchy ingredients such as rice, barley, brown sugar, or sweet potatoes. Its name is the Japanese rendition of the Chinese "shaojiu", which means "burned liquor": the Chinese spirit, however, is considerably stronger, while shōchū rarely goes above 25% alcohol content. Korean soju, which is also distilled from rice or other starches, is generally even lower in alcohol than shōchū. Unlike Western distilled beverages, these Asian spirits use specialized moulds for saccharification - the breaking down of complex starches into simple sugars.

Produced mainly in southern Japan (Kyushu and the Ryukyu Islands), shōchū has been attested since the 16th century. It is a clear, colourless liquor, with a taste that has been described as nutty or earthy. It can be drunk neat, on the rocks, or diluted with water (hot or cold, depending on the season); it can also be mixed with tea or fruit juice, or used as a base for cocktails.

Answer: spirits

With its beautiful golden colour, Drambuie is a liqueur made from Scotch whisky mixed with heather honey, herbs and spices. Its name is thought to be derived from a Scottish Gaelic phrase meaning "the drink that satisfies". According to a popular legend, the recipe for the liqueur was given to a member of Clan MacKinnon by Prince Charles Edward Stuart (also known as Bonnie Prince Charlie) after the fateful Battle of Culloden (1746). In the late 19th century the MacKinnons gave the recipe to John Ross, the owner of a hotel on the isle of Skye, who began producing the liqueur in the 1880s, replacing the original brandy with whisky. The name Drambuie was registered as a trademark in 1893, and the drink was first commercially produced in 1910 in Edinburgh. The original recipe is reportedly kept in a safe, and known to only three people.

Sweet and smooth-tasting, but also quite strong with its 40% ABV, Drambuie can be drunk on its own, either as an aperitif or an after-dinner drink. It is also a key ingredient in a number of cocktails, such as Rusty Nail or (quite unsurprisingly) Bonnie Prince Charlie, and goes very well with hot or cold coffee-based drinks.

Answer: spirits

Originally from northeastern Italy, grappa is a kind of marc, or pomace brandy - distilled from the solid remains of grapes after they have been pressed to make wine. Though, unlike wine brandies, pomace brandies are generally colourless and not aged, grappa can also be aged in oak barrels, acquiring a beautiful amber colour. In spite of a widespread legend that dates grappa from Roman times, this spirit may have been first distilled in the late Middle Ages, when new distilling technologies were introduced into Europe. With its distinctive fragrance, grappa is a popular after-dinner drink; it is also frequently added to espresso coffee to create what in Italy is called "caffè corretto".

The name grappa is protected in the European Union, meaning it cannot be used if some strict criteria are not observed: one of these is that no water must be added to the pomace during fermentation and distillation. The name, however, is used for pomace brandy distilled both in the US and in parts of South America. Interestingly, Grappa is also the name of a mountain located in the Veneto region, where grappa is widely produced: the spirit, however, was not named after the mountain, but comes from "graspa", a dialectal word for grape.

Answer: spirits

Named after one of the Dutch Caribbean islands, Curaçao is a liqueur flavoured with the dried peel of the laraha bitter orange, a citrus fruit grown on the island and derived from the Seville orange. Though the origins of this liqueur are still unclear, the Netherlands-based Bols company claims that Curaçao was developed by Lucas Bols, the distillery's founder, in the late 17th century. In any case, Curaçao already existed in the 19th century, and was mentioned several times (albeit misspelled as "curaçoa") in William Makepeace Thackeray's novel "Vanity Fair" (1847-1848). Since 1896 the Senior & Co. distillery, based in Willemstad, Curaçao's capital, has been producing the liqueur from peels of locally-grown laraha oranges, to which sugar and spices are added.

Curaçao can have as much as 40% ABV, though it is often less alcoholic. Like other orange-flavoured liqueurs - such as Triple Sec and Cointreau - it is originally colourless. However, a variant of this liqueur - first marketed by Bols in the early 20th century - is tinted a brilliant blue by adding the synthetic colourant E133. This unusual hue has made Blue Curaçao very popular as an ingredient of visually attractive cocktails. Not to be upstaged, the Senior company produce Curaçao not only in the colourless and blue versions, but also in orange, red and green. Curaçao is also one of the traditional ingredients of the Hawaiian cocktail Mai Tai.

Answer: spirits

Kirsch is the German word for cherry, and Kirsch (short for Kirschwasser, meaning "cherry water") is a cherry-based fruit brandy produced in Germany, Switzerland and the Alsace region of France. This clear, colourless spirit is usually made with Morello cherries, a cultivar of the sour cherry noted for its dark red colour. Kirsch is believed to have originated in the Black Forest region of southwest Germany, where morello cherries have been grown for a long time. Both the fruits and their stones are used in the distillation of the spirit, which is not sweet, though it does have a delicate, fruity aroma. About 10 kg (22 lb) of cherries are needed to produce a bottle of this strong drink, with at least 40% ABV.

Kirsch is traditionally served neat and cold, in very small glasses, as an apèritif or after-dinner drink, while it is rarely used in cocktails (one notable exception being the Rose, in which it is paired with vermouth and strawberry or raspberry syrup). It is also one of the ingredients of classic Swiss cheese fondue, as well as an essential ingredient of the luscious Black Forest gâteau, a rich chocolate-cherry layer cake with whipped cream. Kirsch is also popular as a filling for chocolates