Sure I’ll bite, well, because, I’ve actually never played a drinking game! And the book The Wine Games by Brent Runzel promised more than one game (30!) to enjoy while drinking wine:
Do your adult friends and family like wine? If so, The Wine Games is your how-to guide to creating a fun-filled evening with friends and family playing games that all have some connection, however direct or abstract, to WINE.
The Wine Games contains more than thirty easy-to-stage, interactive games that everyone can play and enjoy. You’ll be balancing wine glasses, throwing beanbags at wine bottles, spitting and bouncing corks, catching crackers, rolling grapes, and, of course, drinking wine. There are games for indoors and outdoors and games for individual play, team play and group play. And none of the games require any special equipment or skills! Choose games like “Call the Bouncer” or “Noodle Suck” or “Stack & Carry” while creating your own “decantalon” that will be thoroughly enjoyed by your wine-loving crowd. If your group has grown tired of the traditional board and trivia games, you’ll want to call everyone together to play The Wine Games. It’s fun, it’s unique, and you can be sure no one will whine.
Eve’s Take-Aways
Don’t be worried that you will be too inebriated to play the Wine Games Dencantalon, most games only involve wine-themed items.
It will take 3-4 hours to complete a series of 10 or so games with a few other couples – so you’ll want to have a “Friendship Hour” first so guests can visit and drink a little before getting started.
Get into it. The Runzels prompted their guests to designate a country to represent, complete with personalized sashes and team shirts.
Get your supplies, save up some corks, get a scoreboard, order a “trophy” or choose from you own stash of wine-related paraphernalia – before planning your first game night.
The wine games that appealed to me may not be the ones you will want to try, there are a lot to choose from, but, for interest’s sake my favorites are:
“Honey, I’m Home” to see just how fast a person can open and serve a glass of wine. (I’ve been playing this one for years!)
“Wine Pong” because beer pong is so much fun, this game requires the player to bounce a cork off a table and into a regular-sized muffin pan.
“Stand Back! That’s Not A Cork Coming At You!” is an outdoor balancing game, complete with a drawn wine bottle target and small beanbags.
“Call The Bouncer!” results in a “calliope of sounds as corks bounced off the table and chimed off the (different-sized) wine glasses…”
“The Leaning Tower of Cork” allows the player to stack as many corks as they can in one tower in 90 seconds.
Then, at the end of 30 Wine Games Runzel isn’t done, he challenges the reader to make up some of their own games.
Eve Bushman has been reading, writing, taking coursework and tasting wine for over 20 years. She has obtained a Level Two Intermediate Certification from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust, has been the subject of a 60-minute Wine Immersion video, authored “Wine Etiquette for Everyone” and recently served as a judge for the Long Beach Grand Cru. You can email Eve@EveWine101.com to ask a question about wine or spirits that may be answered in a future column. You can also seek her marketing advice via Eve@EveBushmanConsulting.com
