Introduction: 🍷A Toast to Vineyard
Four friends—Greta, Joe, Sylvie, and Tomás—are out to craft the finest wines, and honestly? I want in. Vineyard: A Winemaking Game isn’t just about growing grapes; it’s about timing your moves, working the seasons, and maybe pairing it all with a glass of wine and a charcuterie board. The best part? You can move any friend. Whether you’re harvesting, aging wine, loading the truck to ship orders, or greeting visitors for bonuses, every turn counts. But here’s the twist—you can only use each action card once, so planning ahead is key. Do you push forward or play Paperwork to cash in and reset? Whether it’s a date night or a game night with friends, you’ll be strategizing and constantly debating how to set up for the next best move. Just don’t forget the wine and charcuterie board 🙈
Uncorking the Components 🍷
Rulebook that is easy to follow and has clear bullet points and detailed sections to answer any questions that may arise mid-game
Heart meeples in yellow, green, purple, and maroon. These are a fun touch as it symbolizes friendship while disguising the competitive nature of the game
Four acrylic friend tokens that add personality
Grape tokens and a draw bag
Coins, victory points, and checkmarks for upgrading your player board
Game board and player boards
Action cards per player, improved action cards, and reference cards with iconography, end of game scoring, and key actions defined
Level-based barrels, trucks, and train cards
Setup: 🛠 Laying the Vineyard’s Roots
Setup takes about five minutes, and the rulebook does an excellent job guiding you through each step. Simply lay out the beautiful and vibrant game board, place the train on top of the board, shuffle and reveal four improved action cards, and position the four friends at the Paperwork space (I want to move Tomas first). Then, prepare the grape tokens in the Cultivate area and set up the first level barrels by the Make Wine and place one barrel at Age Wine cellar area. Each player receives a player board, a reference card, heart meeples in their chosen color, and a hand of action cards. Finally, place a heart into the barrel in the cellar and decide who’ll go first
How It Plays 🍇 ➡️ 🍷 ➡️ 🚛 ➡️ ⭐
Vineyard is a worker placement and resource management game where players guide four friends through the winemaking process. The goal? Load barrels onto three trucks and deliver the best wines to earn victory points called stars
Winemaking Locations: where you’ll move a friend every turn
🌱 Cultivate – rearrange and flip grape tokens to mature them
🍇 Harvest – collect and move connected grape tokens to the crush bins
🍷 Make Wine – use grapes to create barrel recipes and start fermentation
⏳ Age Wine – move barrels through the cellar to improve their quality
🚛 Load – Transfer barrels to the truck for delivery
🚂 Greet – choose a train card to gain bonuses
📝 Paperwork – retrieve all used action cards, gain coins, and spend them to improve your board or actions. During Paperwork you may:
Upgrade the player board to unlock special abilities for a specific friend
Improve Action Cards by swapping out a standard action card with an enhanced version that offers extra bonuses or a free action
Taking Your Turn
1️⃣ Play an Action Card
2️⃣ Move the Friend to the location in the action card
3️⃣ Perform the Action
4️⃣ Cleanup by refreshing barrels, train cards, grapes, and truck cards for the next player
With only seven action cards to use each round, every decision in Vineyard matters. You can’t reuse a card until you reset with Paperwork, so timing is critical. Each friend has a unique ability, and upgrading them at the right moment can give you a competitive edge. Though the theme feels friendly, the game is a race to build the most efficient engine and balance delivering and upgrading to achieve victory
The Final Pour: Scoring & Victory
Once the third truck is loaded, the game ends. To calculate your score:
Add up all your stars
Gain 1 star for every 3 hearts or 3 coins remaining
The player with the most stars wins!
🍇 What Makes Vineyard Shine 😍
Well crafted rulebook
High quality components: those heart-shaped meeples🫶—and Tomas, of course!
Unique friend movements: you can move any of the four friends. This gives versatility in your strategy. Pro tip: if you can anticipate someone’s move, you can block them by moving their friend to the spot they wanted, sorry IRL friend. I needed those resources more than you 🙈
Customizable upgrades: that allow you to focus on whatever upgrade suits your strategy
Seven Action cards all the time: your choices matter. Do you upgrade? Play one more card, or go to Paperwork to reset and upgrade?
Highly replayable with a lot of strategic depth
Thematic consistency: every action is connected to the winemaking process
Plays well at every count: I’ve loved it as a two-player duel against my wife, and a three or four player showdown with friends
A Few Bitter Notes: ⚠️ Considerations
Learning curve: first timers may feel pressure to optimize their every move or may experience analysis paralysis. The game’s structure is clear, after a few rounds (or games), the strategy and fun really click!
Player count impact: At three or four players, the game requires more adaptability as you can’t always predict what your opponents will do, so you’ll need to think on your feet and adjust your plans accordingly
Not language independent: yet! I’m hopeful that this game will eventually get translated to Spanish, so I can introduce my family to it
A sip of reality: while this game inspires me to do some serious wine exploration, Vineyard is as enjoyable without any drinks involved. Though a glass or bottle certainly makes the thematic experience even more enjoyable–cheers 🙈!
Kickstarter excitement: Vineyard starts its journey on Kickstarter on February 11, and I can’t wait for it to become available at my local store
🍷 The Last Drop
I’ve had the privilege to playtest Vineyard, and I have no affiliation with the publisher–these thoughts are entirely my own. Behind Vineyard’s charming theme, lies a surprisingly cutthroat game of strategy, timing and efficiency. Every move counts. The components are stunning, the mechanics are clever, and the game has the right amount of complexity and competitiveness to keep it engaging. If you are looking for a game that blends theme with charm and sharp strategy, Vineyard is a game worth raising a glass to. Cheers!
Comments