The Wine Fluency Board Game

In Wine Fluency you collaborate, compete and drink wine! The other teams try to guess what characteristics of the wine the pouring team has chosen. Everyone discusses the wine and then teams take turns choosing cards that match what they feel will best match the pouring teams decisions. Unlike many wine games, this is not a trivia game where you are asked questions; You only need to place your marker on the game board to indicate the following questions: Where is it from? What's the grape? How old is it? How high is the alcohol? Naturally, you have to guess. Whoever guesses best gets the most points for the bottle, and you play as many bottles as there are teams.

Game Board

The game board consists of sections on white grapes, red grapes, regions, age, % of alcohol, and of course, the score track. During play you select the grape you think best matches the wine, and place your color marker on one of the major grape types listed on the board. You then select the alcohol %, the region and the age by placing your pawns on the appropriate spots.

Cards
Sample cards are displayed in the right hand column of this page. You can see example descriptors listed on each card, and those are the words you'll need to compare to for points when the write-up is read after the wine has been revealed. Sometimes you can get a point for a word that is close, if the wine pouring team accepts that it is reasonably similar. During the card selection phase of the game, you get points for color matches or exact matches with the pouring teams selections.

Rules
The rules are quite simple, and available here in PDF form. Rules.pdf

Contents

FAQ
Q: How long does it take to play?
A: It takes about as long as a standard wine tasting party for that number of bottles you have. Typically a four player game takes about an hour, where a 6 player game takes an hour and a half. It's about 15 minutes per bottle.
Q: Can you play with 2 players?
A: Sure, it's not as much of a game since the scoring doesn't work that well; however it is still a fun way to discuss wine. We recommend you taste additional bottles and play the double blind version of the game; you should also not reveal what the bottles are until you have tasted them all.
Q: Can you play with more than 6 players?
A: Sure, but it gets a little crowded and its harder to keep track of player order; but it's easy enough; just plan a few extra minutes per bottle, and you'll need some extra board markers, coins work well.
Q: Can you come over and teach us to play?
A: We LOVE wine, so'd we be happy to, we only charge wine tastes! :) Send email, and if we are near, we'll do it! However, if you can't figure out the rules send an email and we'll answer any questions; we feel the game is easy enough so it should take only a few minutes to learn, questions you have will also be addressed with rules revisions for clarity and updates to this website. (As well as a by email.)