Making friendly competition from wine enjoyment

Do you know the name of to the largest-sized wine bottle? How about the name of Burgundy’s famous red grape? Or even how a white wine will change colour with age?

This month, I decided it would be fun to spice things up and introduce some friendly competition within the group. The name of the game was WINERD (pronounced ‘wine nerd’). I had bought this board game at my local HomeSense for just over $10 and on first glance I knew it would make for hours of fun. So in this instalment of the Viniminutes I’ll get into a bit of how the game is played as well as some tips if you were to host your friends. I will also divulge some strategies to get you to the finish line!

Gameplay

In addition to the playing board, included in the package is a stack of tear-away tasting note templates, cards with tasting note ideas (a list of common flavours and scents found in wine), a large deck of trivia cards, four coloured synthetic corks as playing pieces and a die to roll. The only thing you need to supply is the wine – you will need a minimum three bottles to play the game. Instructions are cleverly printed on the inside lid of the box and the rules are straightforward. The game is designed for 2-4 individuals or teams (and yes, the game is for adults of legal drinking age).

The WINERD board game setup. Guests are in the other room taking notes because they won’t be seeing the wines again once the game is underway. The teams will taste the wines blinded when they land on each of the eight burgundy blind taste test spaces.

Players take turns drawing cards for one another and reading the trivia questions. If they answer correctly they advance through the circuit. Players can use bonus/challenge cards to either advance extra spaces (when they feel certain of the answer) or defer the difficult questions to another player whereby an opponent’s wrong answer can become the challenger’s success. Every so often one will reach a blind tasting square. The blind tastings constitute a road block where in order to advance the player must correctly answer the vintage year, producer, and origin of the wine that is poured into their glass. An opponent will choose one of three wines to pour. The player advances one space for each attribute correctly identified for a maximum of three spaces.

“Oh my! Blind tastings are far too difficult.” There’s no need to fret. Before the game commences, players take a moment to taste through the three wines, un-blinded, and make notes. So the game becomes more about your taste memory rather than your ability to identify wines on-the-fly (but the notes will have to be put away when reaching a blind tasting space).

Hosting for the evening

The host can decide to assign their guests a wine to bring but I found it easier that the host purchases the bottles on their own. This way, the host can select a flight of wines tailored to the skill levels of their guests. In our group’s case, we were relatively new to wine tasting in this fashion so I chose three wines that were quite distinct from one another. You need to choose either three red or three white wines as large colour differences could become a dead giveaway. Also keep in mind what the depth of colour for each wine and try to select three wines that have a similar depth to create more of a challenge. For instance, grapes that tend to create

paler reds: Pinot noir, Nebbiolo, Gamay,

deeper reds: Cabernet sauvignon, Shiraz, Malbec

paler whites*: Pinot grigio/blanc, Sauvignon blanc

deeper whites*: Viognier, Chardonnay

*White wines will deepen and become more golden with age, so check the vintage.

Depending on the colour of the wines chosen for the game, select the opposite colour to serve to your guests so they may have a beverage as the game plays on. Also be sure to supply ample non-alcoholic beverages, water and palate cleansing, neutral snacks such as bread and table crackers.

My selections for the evening were as follows

For gameplay (3 reds)

2011 Amity Vineyards Pinot noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon

Light ruby in colour with notes of red berry fruit and earth, light tannin and medium acidity

2011 Finca Sophenia Reserve Cabernet sauvignon, Mendonza, Argentina

Medium-deep ruby colour with notes of black pepper, smoke, currants, medium tannin and acidity

2012 Hardy’s Bankside Shiraz, South Australia

Medium-deep ruby colour with notes of plum, coffee, strawberry, light tannin and acidity

For sipping throughout the meal and in between gameplay

2012 Angels Gate Gewürztraminer, VQA Niagara Peninsula

Light gold colour with notes of peach, Muscat, medium acidity and light body

2011 Foghead Reserve Chardonnay, Monterey, California

Medium gold colour with notes of golden delicious apple, fresh pineapple, toffee, high acidity and medium body

Remember! The guests must taste all three wines before the start of the game. Therefore, a group of 9-12 people (three teams of 3 to 4 people each) will probably consume half the wine, leaving the other half for gameplay. If you have more players than this, consider purchasing two bottles of each wine or use pour spouts to restrict the size of the pour to no more than 1 ounce. A group of 9 players was a comfortable number because the waiting time between tastings was not too long – everyone had equal chance to taste the wines.

Ideas for creating more of a challenge

As a host, you can challenge your guests even more with these ideas

• Select three wines of the same grape but from different regions of the world or vintages
• Select more than three wines for the gameplay
• The person that poured the wine for their opponent doesn’t reveal which of the three characteristics was identified correctly by their opponent. They simply reply “you guessed one attribute correct” or “you guessed all the attributes correct” etc.
• Have a completely blind tasting with all the wines bagged, only to be revealed at the end of the game (the host will need to keep notes in their back pocket as a reference and the wines should be labelled as #1, #2, #3, etc.)

Strategies to win WINERD

• Take complete notes. The better you describe the wines the better your chances of remembering them. Discuss the wines among your team-mates for ideas.
• Draw comparisons. Was one lighter in colour than the others? Did one of them have a particularly pronounced scent unlike the others? When you record characteristics that are described in a relative sense you will be better able to identify the wines in a blinded fashion.
• Use your bonus/challenge cards wisely. It pays to know your opponents strengths and weaknesses. If your teams are evenly matched the strategic use of the bonus/challenge cards will make the difference in the very tight race.

Final thoughts

Overall WINERD is very fun and easy to play, suitable for novices and seasoned aficionados. It helps to break the ice when you host a large group. What is best of all is that your guests learn plenty about wine and plenty more about their palates and preferences.

Answers to the questions at the beginning of the article

A Nebuchadnezzar is 20 times the size of a standard bottle and generally is used for Champagne. The famous red Burgundy grape is Pinot noir. A white wine will turn deeper in colour, picking up golden or brownish tint as it ages through the oxidation process.

Some of you may remember the article I was writing over the summer to feature some of the talented winemakers of Prince Edward County.

In my element at Harwood Estates – This small winery produces a few thousand bottles per year, the magic happens in part in the stainless steel tanks behind me.

This article, ‘Developing a Crush on the Art of Cool-Climate Winemaking’ is an interview piece where the extreme conditions of Ontario’s coldest appellation are highlighted. Three talented experts tell us about some of the creative things they do to overcome the challenges and harness what nature provides to produce a wide range of outstanding wines.  This article was first published in the April/May 2014 issue of WineMaker. Enjoy!

link to article Cool climate KDonato WMAprMay2014