The Winerd® Game

By Greg Brisendine

The Goods:

Wilridge 2002 Klipsun Vineyards Merlot
Senoj Estates 2005 Passport
Columbia Crest 2005 Horse Heaven Hills Cabernet Sauvignon
Harlequin Wine Cellars 2004 Pinot Noir

The Players:

Josh: WINO Publisher. “I’m gonna kick your ass in this game!”
Doug: WINO Editor. “First comment with suggestive overtones: 9:32PM.”
Sarah: from The Tasting Room. “Don’t have a shot of Jameson before playing this game.”
Greg: Freelance writer. “Is my scooter safe on this street?” No.
Lucy: Dog and door guard. “Woof.”

The Results:

The drinking game grows up! Good for wine newbies, good for the well heeled wino. Buy this game, buy some wine, play and drink with friends.

The Details:

Imagine if you will: The Publisher and the Editor of the swanky new WINO Magazine, their pal who works at The Tasting Room, a freelance writer they found on Craig’s List, and a board game about wine. Upon acquiring the aforementioned game, the WINO guys (as some call them) came to the immediate conclusion that playing the game will help them kill several birds with that one stone: hanging out with an esteemed new writer, drinking some wine, and writing it all off as “work.”

Looking at The Winerd® Game box, the term “drinking game” doesn’t immediately come to mind. There are no quarters, no funnels, and no articles of clothing sacrificed (at least not this time). That’s because this is the grownup version of a drinking game, and it provided a great frame for a group of recently acquainted folks to come together, hang out, drink a little and laugh a little. This is essentially like Trivial Pursuit® for winos.

The evening began with wine tasting (how can this be a bad thing?). We started with full pours, tasting three wines, jotting down observations on the handy note sheet so we could remember them (this becomes important later).

Throughout the game, we were asked trivia questions about wine, some easy and some surprisingly difficult. At various points, we had to do blind taste tests, naming the winery, the AVA, and the varietal. The earlier note-taking was simply a device to aid in remembering the wines, but you can’t use your notes while tasting. Although the rules don’t specify, the challenge is greater if you choose three whites, or three reds, rather than, say, a white, a rosé and a red. It wouldn’t be such a blind tasting then.

We won’t argue that the experience with The Winerd® Game was probably enhanced by the fact that we drank great wine all the way through, but there’s no need to separate this game from the experience of playing it with a glass in your hand. Bottom line, The Winerd® Game was great fun.

Invite friends, and save money by instructing them to bring a bottle of wine. We recommend a minimum of four bottles for a game: three for blind tastings and one game bottle to drink in between taste challenges. Finish the other three bottles to celebrate the end of the game.

Sure, we could have all brought wine and sat around talking about…ummm…jobs or relationships, or politics, or pets. Instead, we all brought wine and got to flex our (in some cases puny) wine knowledge muscles. We were in short, exposed as nerds for wine. Winerds.