Trivia, Tasting and More: Six Games Perfect for Wine Lovers

Where on the tongue will a wine’s acidity be best discerned: tip, back, or sides?

That’s just one of the game’s over 700 trivia questions on the topics of wine regions, culture, pairings, winemaking and more.

The objective is to be the first player or team to fill their game board with tokens, which are colored cardboard wine bottles, by answering the trivia questions correctly across all categories.

Along with the boards, tokens, question cards and a die, a map of the world’s wine regions is also included, which participants can choose to use as a cheat sheet.

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The makers of the SOMM movie series have created a card game to help make you a better blind taster in a fun, unpretentious setting.

Each of the 3–6 players is encouraged to bring a bottle to pour blind. And the goal is to draw and discard cards until you’re confident your hand matches the wine being tasted.

The deck of cards contains wine descriptors ranging from cat pee to cotton candy to potting soil. The cards also list characteristics like oaked or unoaked, regions and varieties.

Made for all different levels, you can try the Original Deck, which includes descriptors for reds and whites from all over the world; the Red Deck, which focuses on red wines from New and Old World regions; the White Deck, which focuses on all different white varieties; and more.

This sleek box contains everything you need (except the wine) to host your own blind tasting at home.

The game includes wine term cheat sheets, score sheets, wine bottle bags and tags, glass markers along with nerd glasses, crowns, and other fun accessories to stop yourself from taking things too seriously.

Each player brings a wine to taste blind and the bottles are then scored in five categories. In between rounds, you can quiz each other with the 100 bonus trivia cards.

If you roll your eyes whenever someone describes a wine as “austere” or “angular,” you’ll appreciate this cheeky wordplay game that takes the stuffiness out of tasting.

Each round, a themed card prompts players to describe the wine they’re drinking in an unorthodox way, for example, “What hashtag(s) would you give this wine?” or “Write a personal ad on behalf of this wine.”

Players then vote on their favorite description in each round and they receive a point for each vote sent their way.

The player with the highest score when the wine runs out wins.

This wine-themed twist on the classic board game will prove just how complicated and expensive owning a winery can be. Move your wine bottle token past “Cheers!” to collect $200, acquire properties named after grapes, and purchase wine shops and wineries, all while attempting to avoid import taxes or get stuck in the wine cellar.

Like the original, Wine-Opoly can go on for hours, but there is a quick, one-hour version for those one-bottle school nights.