2 great board and trivia games for wine lovers

Everyone knows wineries are a tourist industry, and winery gift shop merch is a market sector of its own. But who knew that wine-themed board games were a thing?

There are boozy versions of Mad Libs, wine-themed Monopoly, Tuscan vineyard board games and an abundance of trivia games, whose fun level ranges from a lot to not. But here are two fun ones to try — and you don’t have to be a somm to have a good time.

Wine Wars

Billed as trivia for “wine geeks and wannabes,” this cleverly designed game offers a wide range of wine and viticultural tidbits all tucked into one whimsical package. Roll the multi-colored die to choose a category — Vine to Vino, perhaps, Grapeosphere, Wine Cellar, Wine and Food or Cork Culture — then take a stab at one of the game’s 750 questions. They run the full gamut from quirky to impossible, but still entertaining. Get it right and you earn a little color-coded wine bottle to stash in the appropriate spot on your foldable game board.

The trivia questions are the work of Joyce Lock, the author of Foodie Fight and Foodie Fight Rematch. Here, she delves into everything wine-related, from the root-feeding aphid that devastated European vineyards in the late 19th century to baseball-playing winemakers, vinous song titles and the big ol’ dimple in a wine bottle’s bottom. That’s the punt, people. And the point of the punt is sheer fun.

With its nice balance of wine education, amusing factlets and charming oddities, this is the game we keep coming back to. It makes a great gift for wine-loving friends, but you’ll want a copy for yourself, too.

Details: This game ($25) is designed for two to six players. Available from Chronicle Books, Amazon and other sites.

Somm Blinders

If you’ve watched “Somm,” the 2012 documentary about four sommeliers preparing for the Master Sommelier exam, you’ve seen those blind taste tests in action. Tasters swirl, sip and rattle off descriptors of the wine’s appearance — day bright! star bright! — aromas and flavor profiles before identifying the wine as, say, a Marlborough region sauv blanc or a Napa cab.

The filmmakers’ Somm Blinders re-creates that experience, minus the stress of having your sommelier career hang in the balance. Three to six players sip their way along while competing to collect cards whose descriptions — leather, blackberry, cat pee (yes, really) — match what’s in their glass.