Weekly Wine Quiz: Putting Down Root(stock)s

Vinted on October 12, 2012 binned in wine quiz

Welcome to the Weekly Wine Quiz! This week, we are diving headfirst into the geek forest, wherein we shall thoroughly place our heads into the… dirt…

Standard disclaimer: based on feedback from ever-so-vocal-and-intelligent peeps like you, I supply the quiz question each week, but I do *not* supply the quiz answer immediately. YOU supply your best guess for the answer in the comments, and then tune back in later today in the comments section for the official answer. Got it? Good, let’s do this thang!

Putting Down Root(stock)s: The dreaded vine louse Phylloxera, which mostly impacts the roots of grape vines, attacked vineyards in California in the 1980s. Which of the following vine rootstocks was incorrectly thought to have been immune to the pest?

A. AxR-1
B. St. George
C. Börner
D. 333EM

Cheers, and good luck!

Comments

masi3v

Friday, 12 October, 2012 at 8:32

"Oh, you rootstock?"

A.
- 1WineDude
  
  Friday, 12 October, 2012 at 8:41
  
  Masi – ha!!! Gods of inside jokes are smiling upon you today…
Vinnie

Friday, 12 October, 2012 at 14:02

If one of these simply said Zinfandel, that's what I would choose…but since that's not the case, I'm putting my big girl britches on and taking a stab in the dark by selecting:
A
(crossing fingers instead of busy consulting google)
- 1WineDude
  
  Friday, 12 October, 2012 at 14:27
  
  Vinnie – I admire the bravery! :)
Dusty

Friday, 12 October, 2012 at 15:51

I'll go with the crowd on this one and say A. One of these days I am going to know an answer by myself and the world will end. :)
WestchesterWineGuy

Friday, 12 October, 2012 at 17:53

Good question Joe! Definitely wine geek worthy… I'll stick with the A boys ;)
1WineDude

Saturday, 13 October, 2012 at 9:22

Thanks to all the brave contributors! Here's the official answer:

A. AxR-1
California grape growers made a costly error when they grafted vine plantings onto AxR-1 rootstock (an abbreviation for a name based on its parentage, "Aramon Rupestris Ganzin No. 1") – turns out that it was not actually entirely resistant to Phylloxera, requiring expensive replanting when the louse swiftly infected vineyards in the 1980s.

Cheers!
Dennis

Monday, 15 October, 2012 at 11:41

As a retired Dry Creek ISonoma County) Zin grower on St. George rootstock knows, UCDavis got AxR1 wrong.
- 1WineDude
  
  Monday, 15 October, 2012 at 11:50
  
  Dennis – Indeed!

Chatter

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1WineDude { Bob, yeah, I don't do the numbers. Having said that, I wouldn't draw such a hard line on the numerical scores. In the context of... } – Mar 05, 9:13 PM
Bob Henry { So I guess my long reply to your comment . . . "I don’t know whether to laugh at that sentiment, or feel insulted" .... } – Mar 05, 2:47 PM
Bob Henry { Quoting an excerpt from Parker's 1989 interview with Wine Times magazine: "WINE TIMES: You mean when you are in the cellars of Burgundy, you look... } – Mar 05, 2:35 PM
1WineDude { Bob, for what it's worth, I basically use the same scale I employ for wine reviews, with B level wines being silver and A level... } – Mar 05, 10:22 AM
1WineDude { August - it wasn't. } – Mar 05, 10:13 AM