Food & Drink: A quiz of fiendish vintage: Anthony Rose poses the questions and a case of champagne goes to the winner

Every year, the standard of answers to our annual Christmas quiz gets higher. This year, in an effort to counter the tendency, I have compiled one of the most fiendish quizzes ever devised by a national newspaper.

Not that you need to be a Master of Wine to win. With a smattering of wine know-how, and a nose for rooting out past issues of the Independent, any diligent reader stands a chance of winning first prize: a case of Louis Roederer Brut Premier Champagne. Three runners-up will each win a copy of my 1994 wine guide, Grapevine, co-written with Tim Atkin of the Observer.

Please send your entries to: Anthony Rose, Christmas Drink Quiz, The Independent, 40 City Road, London EC1Y 2DB, to arrive by Tuesday 4 January. Prizes will go to the first correct entries picked from the postbag by me, and my decision, as they say, is final. Answers and winners will appear in the Food & Drink pages on 8 January. Employees of Newspaper Publishing plc and their relatives are not eligible. Fill in the boxes with your answers and post the coupon to the address above.

1. The controversial new scent launched this year by Yves Saint Laurent was called:

(a) Champagne

(b) Champignon

(c) Dom Perignon

2. The grechetto is the native

grape variety that is used in:

(a) Orvieto

(b) Sicily

(c) Retsina

3. 'Double wood' means:

(a) The anaerobic maturation of red wines in two-year-old barrels

(b) A wine considered by experts to be excessively oaky

(c) A single-malt whisky successively matured in bourbon and sherry casks

4. A Bishop's Finger is:

(a) A recipe for mulled wine using red burgundy as its base

(b) A strong beer brewed by Britain's oldest brewery, Shepherd Neame, in Faversham, Kent

(c) The traditional wooden bung used as a stopper in 225- litre French oak barrels

5. The latest vintage to be declared by the majority of port houses this year was:

(a) 1991

(b) 1992

(c) 1993

6. France's favourite aperitif du pauvre 10 years ago was:

(a) Piat d'Or

(b) Veuve Clicquot

(c) Rivesaltes

7. As an avid observer of changes in the high street, you will have noticed that this year two wine giants were joined in matrimony. They were:

(a) Majestic Wine Warehouses and Wizard Wine

(b) Peter Dominic and Thresher

(c) Victoria Wine and Augustus Barnett

8. Rizling is the name:

(a) Given to the former Lutomer Laski riesling to distinguish it from the superior German Rhine riesling

(b) The Australian name for the semillon grape of the Hunter Valley

(c) The green Germanic flute bottle used to distinguish hock from mosel

9. The wine served by the

Queen to Mr Mitterrand at a state banquet was:

(a) 1990 Rougemont Castle

(b) 1990 Hastings Dry

(c) 1990 Chiddingstone Pinot

10. Pinotage is:

(a) A traditional fermentation technique used to immerse the 'cap' of red grapeskins in the tank or vat of fermenting wine

(b) A crossing of the pinot noir and the cinsault grape, commonly found in South Africa

(c) The descriptive term for the aged, slightly gamey character of mature red burgundy at its best, as employed in the expression ca pinotage, ou quoi?

11. The most abundant wine-producing region in France is:

(a) Bordeaux

(b) Languedoc-Roussillon

(c) The Rhone Valley

12. Britain's best-selling wine is:

(a) Lambrusco

(b) Jacob's Creek

(c) Liebfraumilch

13. Champagne producers sued Thorncroft Vineyard for:

(a) Using the term methode champenoise on the label

(b) Calling its non-alcoholic fizz Elderflower Champagne

(c) Putting Bollinger labels on Babycham

14. One of the world's most illustrious clarets passed from English hands back to the French this year. It was:

(a) Chateau Latour

(b) Chateau Mouton-Rothschild

(c) Chateau Lafite-Rothschild

15. Of these Eastern European names, the odd one out is:

(a) Kiskunfelegyhaza

(b) Kiskoros

(c) Kekfrankos

16. 2-4-6 trichloranisole, or TCA, is:

(a) The interaction of chemical compounds and mould that make a wine smell and taste corky

(b) The fungicide illegally sprayed on to vines and discovered in minute quantities

during random checks by the Ministry of Agriculture this year

(c) The chemical compound that gives an aniseed-like flavour to aperitifs such as Pernod and pastis

17. Gruner Veltliner is:

(a) The traditional East European system of canopy management designed to maximise exposure of foliage to sunlight

(b) A modern manifestation of the green zeitgeist now prevalent in German organic viticulture

(c) Austria's most widely planted grape variety

18. In the league of wine importing nations, Australia last year shot to:

(a) No 1

(b) No 4

(c) No 10

19. The producer who has done most to restore the reputation of Piemonte's nebbiolo grape is:

(a) Robert Mondavi

(b) Piero Antinori

(c) Angelo Gaja

20. Cricova is famous as:

(a) The subterranean village renowned throughout the former Soviet Union for its champagne-method sparkling wines:

(b) The name of the inventor of the Russian continuous method used in the production of sparkling wine

(c) The former imperial cellars in Hungary from which Tokay Aszu Essencia originates