From board games to video games, wine conquers the world of family entertainment

Maybe it’s the pandemic that leads us to spend more time at home with the family or with very few friends, or maybe it’s the desire to discover ourselves all as sommeliers, or to imagine ourselves, even if only for an hour, managers of a successful winery, the fact remains that wine and the world of winemaking are increasingly the undisputed protagonists of our free time. It is no coincidence that the world of Bacchus, in the trend recorded by WineNews, is also conquering an unexpected space in the world of board games and beyond. From simple quizzes to discover wines on a trip around the world, to more didactic and management games, from party games with blindfolded tastings to video games: there are truly games for all tastes.
If you have always dreamed of owning a winery, “Viticulture” is the board game for you. Imagine yourself living in the Tuscany of yesteryear surrounded by beautiful hills: you have inherited a vineyard, but it is not easy to manage it with only a few workers and tools. With this game you can expand your winery, hire staff, build structures, plant vines and fulfilling wine orders, thus making it the most successful winery in the region. Also a game dedicated to winemaking is “Vinhos”, the Portuguese word for wine. The aim of the game, set in Portugal, is to produce the best quality wine that can be exchanged for money or victory points. Winemakers have six years to grow their wines and choose the best varieties. Although the theme of viticulture is similar to the previous game, “Vinhos” focuses more on stock selection than on the placement of workers. To add another dynamic to the game, players can be asked to bring their own bottle of Portuguese wine for a tasting while playing.
“Wine IQ” is a game for wine lovers, in which you can discover fascinating facts and stories about the world of wine. From vines to vineyards, from glasses to etiquette. The curiosities are endless. And with a large number of participants, you can even play in teams. The biggest game for “wine snobs, corky idiots and even nascent oenophiles” is “Wine Smarts”, with interesting and useful wine facts to enrich your knowledge. You can simply play by yourself or gather some friends to refine your palate or enrich your wine vocabulary, thus achieving the perfect combination of wine and fun. “Winerd” is also a wine tasting game that combines a passion for wine with fun among friends by incorporating wine tasting into the gameplay. To start, you need three different bottles of red or white wine. Each team/player takes turns tasting the wine and taking notes on the aroma, color and information about the region, year and name. Complicated? You can collaborate with an amateur sommelier - a good strategic move.
For all those who panic when presented with the wine list in a restaurant, there is “From Vines to Wines”, a wine-tasting quiz that promises to help you become a wine connoisseur in no time. In the wine-tasting game, players open four to six bottles of wine, roll the dice and move the cork from the vineyard to harvesting, crushing, clarifying, bottling and then tasting. Along the way, they answer questions about wine and taste it, spending an evening of laughter with friends. Another wine tasting and trivia game is “ZinZig” designed to challenge the mind and palate, with 250 puzzles and 50 blind tasting cards in a good balance of thinking and drinking. Another quiz game, “Wine Wars”, tests your knowledge of wine and its wonders. Battles begin when players answer questions ranging from the grape growing process to the production stage, from wine storage to the commercial side of production. “Sommify” teaches blind tasting like a real sommelier, but no prior knowledge of wine is necessary, and beginners often win. Players take turns guessing the taste and origins of the mystery wines. A sommelier, either permanent or rotating players, is the judge of each round and reveals clues to the mystery wines. Players score points for common wine characteristics such as tannins or acidity and eventually unlock the cellar doors.
And even if it’s not exactly party time “All You Need Is Wine” is another blind wine tasting game, perfect for home parties or entertaining guests. The game comes with tasting sheets, numbered wine bags and paper labels for the glasses. Players taste each wine blindly and write their notes on the sheets, counting the points at the end. There is also a wine game such as “Chardonnay Go” for an evening with friends. For those who want to take a trip around the world, “The Wine Game” is the perfect game. From vineyards in Italy, France and Spain to wineries in the United States, “The Wine Game” takes you on a journey through the world’s most famous wine countries. And for lovers of role-playing and deduction, there is “Murder Mystery Party”. Here’s the backstory: the annual wine tasting festival in California’s “Wine Country” is in full swing when the body of local vineyard owner Barry Underwood is found hidden under his cellar. It’s a murder, and players can tell true stories or bluff. There are games designed to unite generations, such as “Vino”, suitable for friends and families, in which players can take a real journey into the world of wine, discovering information within everyone’s reach, or “Wineopoly”, a real cult: it is the version of the classic Monopoly game but with a wine theme. Monopoly plays with the excellence of Italian cuisine and becomes “Buonissimo”, also in a journey through Italy to discover products, dishes and iconic recipes, in a project born from the partnership between Winning Moves and Buonissimo.it. Not forgetting the now famous trivia quiz “Wine” (with dedicated versions such as the one on “Chianti Classico”).
“Hundred Days - Winemaking Simulator”, the first management and simulation game (by the Broken Arms Games development team) about wine production, is not yet a year old. In fact, gamers will be able to experience the total management of a company, in every single step: from the selection of the type of vine to the cultivation system, and then on to the delicate stages of vinification and maturation, right up to the harvest and finally the sale of the bottles. Even the title of the game is a clear reference to the vine, "Hundred Days", the time that elapses from flowering to ripening of the grapes. The life cycle of the vine. The game can begin, enjoy!