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Hello, and welcome to The Wineitupanotch Podcast, a podcast where we talk about wine life and everything in between.
My name is Anshu, I am a certified wine specialist and your host for this podcast, and I am so thrilled that you've decided to join me here today. Thank you so much for doing so.
Today is actually part three of our series of testing your knowledge about wine facts.
We have been looking (over the last couple of episodes) at small snippet-sized wine facts delivered in a Q&A fashion to give you the opportunity to test how much you know about wine.
Whether you're a wine student or someone who's just getting into wine or you just love wine and want to know as much as you can, there never seems to be enough time to learn all of the facts that you need to know about wine. There is really, honestly, just so much to know.
So I decided to create "The 30 Days of Wine Facts Project" through my company Wineitupanotch Lifestyles to really help people to learn more about wine. What I had been doing was delivering bite-sized emails one a day to people who signed up to the project that actually just helped them to learn one interesting fact about wine. And I've run two rounds of the project.
They may be some more forthcoming. You'll have to stay tuned. But in the meantime, I thought I would bring some of those wine facts to the podcast to give you the listener, an opportunity to enjoy that same learning environment if you will. Although I'm not doing one podcast episode for each wine fact, I've broken' in one of the rounds into chunks of six wine facts.
And that's what I'm delivering in these podcast episodes and really just giving you an opportunity to test yourself a little.
Now, if you haven't listened to these episodes already, there are two more before this, but they are not continuous. So don't worry if you're just joining now, you haven't missed anything. You can start here.
But I would recommend going back because I guess if you've missed anything, you've missed the opportunity to learn 12 other wine facts.
But what I will say that I've said in the prior episodes is when you are going through this particular podcast episode, I would encourage you to have a pencil and a piece of paper with you.
If you can, if you're driving that's okay. Or doing something else, that's fine as well. But maybe take
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an opportunity to pause. I do pause after I ask each question, but you can also hit pause on your podcast player. And just take a pause and think about what you think the answer is before you hit play again, and then you'll hear me deliver it.
And that just gives you an opportunity to actively engage in the content and to take this listening time and use it for active learning.
Now, just in terms of the way I will deliver the content - I will actually say the questions first. I will pause and give you an opportunity to think about the answers and then I'll come back and share what the answers are. And it is a very quick format for delivery.
I'm not going very, very deep on any of the topics, because to be honest, each one of them could be a podcast episode in and of itself. So I'm just kind of giving you a question and giving you an answer with a little bit of context. The focus here is to be able to share as much as possible in a short period of time and give you that opportunity to learn!
So we'll get into that in a moment.
But before we do that, I did want to share one really cool thing that has come across my podcast player, if you will, in the last little while. And actually, I shouldn't say my podcast player, I should say my audio listening device. My phone actually is what I use all the time to listen to podcasts and more importantly, in this instance, audio books, and I've been going to my library, uh, electronically. And downloading a bunch of audio books on anything that interests me.
I'm quite interested in topics as vast as finance through to marketing, business, personal growth. I mean, you name it. I kind of have an interest in a lot of different things. I like politics. I like art. So there's always a lot that I am looking to learn about. And certainly, I don't know everything.
So, audio content gives me a great opportunity to be doing other things and listening and learning at the same time. And in fact, I just posted about this very topic on LinkedIn yesterday. Where I was talking to my audience on LinkedIn about the fact that really, I feel that. Listening to content in your earbuds is a way to amplify your time and really give you back so much more capacity to learn while really not taking that much extra time from you.
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And the trick behind that for me is to always have my earbuds in my ear as I'm doing something.
So I could be engaging in my chores around the house, cooking. I could be sort of driving my children to where they need to go or waiting for them to get out of wherever they are, I could be driving myself to meetings or, events that I have to attend for work. I could be walking my dog and I like to take long walks anyways.
So for me, all of those instances are opportunities to be listening and learning and absorbing some information. and I have been doing that as I said quite a bit. And I found something that I thought was really a great tool for a lot of different people at different stages in their life. And I want to share it with you.
Now just about everybody listening is going to be familiar with Harvard Business School - it is definitely one of the most iconic organizations in the world and certainly in higher education, it's, you know, one of those really iconic schools that people get to go to
But for the rest of us who don't get to go to Harvard, there is also the Harvard Business Review which some may be familiar with. the Harvard business review is a magazine that's published six times in a year. And it is an independent corporation, but it is an affiliate of the Harvard Business School.
They have a website, so you can go check out their website, but they also publish all kinds of books. And in my journeys at my public library, I found the HBR Guide to Smarter Networking.
And I found it as an audio book. So I have been listening to it and I'm kind of reflecting on the lessons that it shares and teaches over the last couple of days.
And I just really think this is an excellent resource for anybody and everybody.
While Harvard business review actually is very focused on the business world and topics such as leadership and strategy and finance and some of the books that they publish as part of the HBR guide series are that way focused, this particular one is very much focused just on the general concept of networking. And they do talk in this book about the workplace and people in
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the workplace, but they also talk about entrepreneurs. And I think that the range of the angles in which they look at the concept of networking would be very helpful to everybody because at the end of the day, we all need good strong networks to do our best work and live our best life.
There is no such thing in my view, and in the view of many people that are much smarter than me as a self-made man or woman, really, you are made on the basis of the help of others and on the basis of your connection with others.
So I just really wanted to share this particular guide with you as something that I would really personally encourage you, who I think of as a friend, if you're listening to this particular episode, if you listen to my podcast, Um, you know, I think of you as a friend, so friend to friend sharing that, I thought that this was a really great resource.
So once again, it's the "HBR Guide to Smarter Networking". And I'm just looking at its synopsis online and it says here, you know, this is exactly what they say about what they want to accomplish with this book. It says this guide will help you make great first impressions, connect better at conferences, whether they be in person or virtual, reach out to find your next job and overcome obstacles to building your network, avoid networking burnout, keep your network healthy over the long haul.
I really liked some of the chapters that dealt with networking for underrepresented populations and networking for women. There was a chapter dedicated to networking as a parent when you don't have a lot of time. There was exploration of your weaker connections and your stronger connections and what they mean.
There's discussion about reaching back out to people that you might have lost touch with. So truly very, very applicable to life broadly speaking., and it's available as an audio book. As I said, I got it from my library, so I didn't personally have to pay for it, which I really appreciate, but it is also on Audible and it can be downloaded from other sites as well.
If you are looking for something to add to your repertoire, to expand yourself, to grow. Both personally and professionally.
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This is something that I would definitely recommend to you.
And with that, let's get into the main event of this podcast episode, the reason that you decided to listen, which is to test your knowledge on six fascinating facts about wine and see what you know!
I will start by sharing six questions and then I will share the answers and to make it a little bit easier, I'm going to give you one beginner level fact to start, then two intermediate level facts and then the rest will be more. advanced facts, if you will.
Okay.
So let's start with the very first one.
Where is the world famous wine called Chianti produced?
The next question, which is more of an intermediate level of fact - do older wooden barrels impart more or less Oak characteristics to a wine and why?
Wine fact number three.
What did the letters IGP on a bottle stand for?
And now we get into some more advanced wine facts.
Wine fact number four.
Where does the Bordeaux region rank in terms of total volume of wine produced relative to other wine producing regions in France?
Wine fact number five.
Once upon a time, two grapes were purposefully encouraged to have a baby. These two grapes were Pinot noir and Cinsaut. What is the name of their baby?
And wine fact number six!
Somewhere in the world, there is a lake called Neusiedl. And it is very important for a number of reasons when it comes to the wines made around and not far from its shores. What country and region is Lake Neusiedl located in?
Okay, let's get into it!
The answers.
So for the very first wine fact, the question was where is the world famous wine called Chianti produced?
And I think most people will know the answer to this.... it's produced in Italy. That's quite an easy answer. And more specifically from Tuscany.
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The Chianti region actually covers most of the province of Tuscany in central Italy and it's kind of off the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea.
The next question was do older wooden barrels impart more or less oak characteristics to a wine and why?
And the answer is that olden wooden barrels ( or older wooden barrels) will impart less oak characteristics to a wine. The reason is the older a barrel, is that a wine is aged or matured in the less wood-based or oaky character will be imparted onto the wine.
And this is because the tannins in the wood of the barrel neutralize as the barrel is used. In fact, by some estimates as much as 50% of the character of the wood is lost in the very first time it's used because it's actually absorbed by the wine that was in the barrel. Most wooden barrels are not used for maturation after they've been used for four or so vintages, at least not for wines where the wine maker hopes to have any hint of oakiness in the wine.
So hopefully you found that one interesting. I know when I first learned that I found it fascinating!
Next question.
What do the letters IGP stand for?
Now, the first thing is in terms of the answer, you're only going to see IGP on a bottle of French wine. So the answer is in French first. The letters themselves stand for which translates into English as "protected geographical indication" . Wines labeled with the letters IGP come from defined geographical areas that are larger than those that are labeled as the three letters A-O-C which is another letter combination that you will see frequently on bottles of French wine. IGP wines are also typically required to conform to less rules than AOC wines. The rules governing IGP wines in France are there for often said to be less strict in totality.
And some may claim that this means that IGP wines are inferior to AOC wines. And, you know, in some cases that may be true. However, this is not a categorically true statement by any means, and you should not be tricked into believing it is. There are some fantastic IGP wines on the market.
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Okay.
The next question was, where does the Bordeaux region rank in terms of total volume of wine produced relative to other wine producing regions in France? And the answer is actually second. Now, if you guessed first, in other words, that Bordeaux ranks number one in terms of volume of wine produced across all of France's various wine regions, I wouldn't say I blame you!
The Bordeaux region. Definitely, absolutely does produce a lot of wine. There's a lot of it in export markets. Some may say it's kind of a "wine lake". I'm using air quotes here. It's a term that is sometimes used to describe an area where there's a lot of wine produced. However it is actually the Languedoc region in the south of France that is the number one top wine producing region by volume in France.
The next wine fact was a little bit of a story in terms of the context. So once upon a time, two grapes were purposefully encouraged to have a baby. These two grapes where Pinot Noir and Cinsault and what is the name of their baby? And the answer may be obscure for those who don't really know South African wine very well because this experiment, which took place in a lab and created a new grape actually happened at Stellenbosch university in 1925.
Okay. So the grape is Pinotage and the grape was bred at the University of Stellenbosch by crossing Pinot Noir with Cinsault.
Though the grape has not had a lot of commercial success outside of South Africa, Pinotage is in fact south Africa's third most planted black grape variety. And it's used to produce a wide range of styles and wines at different price points in South Africa. So it's quite important to the wines of South Africa.
And definitely, I would say worth getting to know! It's a bit of a different grape. The profile can be a little bit different but there are some stunning examples out there as well as some ordinary ones. And for any wine lover, it's worth giving it a try if you haven't tried it already.
And the last question.
Somewhere in the world, there's a lake and that lake is called and it's very important for all the wines that are produced from around or near it. And the
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question was what country and region is this lake located in?
This is definitely a tricky one!
Unless you know your wines really well, it would be kind of hard to know that this particular lake lake new Seattle. Is located in Austria. And it's located in the Burgenland region specifically, which is in the Eastern part of the Northern part of the country. So there you go, that's where Lake Neusiedl is located. And please forgive me if my accent on that wasn't perfect.
So there we have it!
Six fascinating facts about wine at different levels of difficulty delivered to you in an easy going Q&A format to help you learn. I'm all about helping people learn about wine here. I love to share the knowledge in a way that's easy to consume and hopefully is accretive in terms of your overall understanding of wine.
There is really no better way to learn about wine than to keep exposing yourself in smaller increments over a longer period of time. In terms of modality, you know, across different modalities because we all learn differently. So putting that cornucopia factors together is the best way to continuously keep improving your knowledge about the vast world of wine.
There's no question. It is very vast. It can be extremely hard to master. I'm still trying to figure it out myself in spite of all of the work that I've done in the field. I know there's still a lot more for me to learn. So please. You know, if you didn't know some of these answers or didn't know any of the answers, it really doesn't matter.
You shouldn't feel any ways about it. You should feel very proud of yourself for trying. And for continuing to invest in your learning, whether it be about wine or networking, as we talked about earlier in this episode or anything else for that matter. Taking the time to learn and grow and keep improving is such an important quality in a person and in life as far as I'm concerned. So congratulations to you.
If you're on to episode number three in this series, that's amazing. If you just joined this time and actually stuck it out until the end. That's amazing. And I would love to see you here again.
The next time we do another episode, I think I will continue with this series.
I may not do all 30 wine facts from the first round of the project.
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We'll have to see, but I think I will do one more episode because I've been getting some good feedback on these episodes. It seems people are enjoying them. So please do join me back here for another episode of The Wineitupanotch Podcast.
I love having you here. I hope to see you again soon.
In the meantime, I wish you lots of peace, love light, and of course, good wine!
Until next time.
Cheers!
