Wine Cellar Review

"Unfortunately, despite all of my geographic advantages, I only vaguely understand what any of that means. After years of being steeped in this culture, I can really only identify if something is red or white, and I still put ice cubes in my chardonnay. The society of passion around wine may be lost on my poor philistine soul, but I envy the love and care that others put into its history and agriculture."

"Wine Cellar is a 1-8 player game that attempts to school the uncultured among us through bidding on different wine types with differing countries of origin. Players are employed by a collector to assemble a very specific tableau of eight bottles. While it requires no wine knowledge to play, it aims to leave you a little more savvy than it found you."

"There are two types of cards in this game: elongated Wine Bottle cards, and standard sized Collector cards. Each Wine Bottle card features one of the four types of wine, one of the twelve countries of origin, a scoring matrix, and a bidding amount. The goal is to collect a stack of eight wine bottle cards, arranged in a way to maximize your point totals."

Rolling hills of grape vines and access to Pinot Noir form the setting. The player lacks wine knowledge but admires others' passion for wine history and agriculture. Wine Cellar is a 1–8 player bidding game where players, hired by a collector, assemble a tableau of eight bottles. Each elongated Wine Bottle card lists a wine type, a country, a scoring matrix, and a bidding value; standard Collector cards also appear. Players start with eight cards and a market equal to the player count. Each round players secretly select a bid card; bids are revealed and, from highest to lowest, players take a market card to add to their tableau. Bid cards replace the market and play repeats until hands are exhausted.

Read at Board Game Quest