Sommelier: The Wine Facts Society Game Created by Savvy
Mom Ruth Paget
This
is a game for adults of legal drinking age whose objective is to win some
hand-cut cheese cubes and learn some wine facts along the way.
Items Needed to
Organize Sommelier:
-Sommelier
Test Prep Book – The Sommelier Prep
Course: An Introduction to the Wines, Beers, and Spirits of the World by
Michael Gibson
-Index
cards
-rubber
bands (at least 30)
-pens
and notepads for scoring
-prize:
small plates of hand cut cheddar cheese cubes or crackers and cheese
(There
can be multiple winners, so have supplies ready.)
Creating the Game
Materials:
You
need to write out sommelier questions with the index cards.
Use
The Sommelier Prep Course’s chapter
review questions and key terms for each of it 29 chapters. (There is an answer key at the end of the
book.)
Make
a deck of questions for each chapter with answers and place rubber bands around
the card deck for each chapter. The answer key is at the end of the book.
You
might want to code index cards for different chapters with c1, c2, c3 and son
on.
It
will take time to write out the questions and answers, but you will learn in
the process.
How to Play the
Sommelier Society Game:
Objective:
Wine a plate of hand cut cheese cubes to go with your wine at end of play
Number
of Players: 2 to 6 per table
When
does play start?
Players can join and leave a game throughout the day, but have to have 20 right scores to obtain a cheese plate.
Players can join and leave a game throughout the day, but have to have 20 right scores to obtain a cheese plate.
Who
leads the game?
Each
group has a table leader who asks questions and scores players on small
notebook paper.
The
leader notes who has earned 20 points for a cheese plate.
Expansion 1 - Pronunciation
Practice saying all the key words until you can say them perfectly.
Expansion 2 - Spelling Test
Once you can say all the key words perfectly, hold a spelling test. Perfect scorers get a cheese and apple slice plate.
Expansion 3 - Name the Country of Origin of the Grape Varietal
Once you can perfectly pronounce and spell the names of the different grape varieties, go to the Key Terms section of the Grape Varieties chapter in Sommelier Prep Course and name the country that is considered the country of origin for each grape.
Pronunciation and spelling provide clues about country of origin, which is why I listed this game expansion after those two tasks.
Expansion 4 - Fish or Steak Game for Grape Color Memorization
In this game, you need to make an index pack that will list the grape variety's color along with a clue for the wine color on the back of the index card.
For most of the cards, you can use fish for dishes that go with white wine and steak for dishes that go with red wine. Some white grapes and red grapes can be made into sparkling wines or dessert wines, so you will have to add those categories.
Just making the game index cards helps memorize red and white grape varieties.
Play this game before trying to memorize wine grape variety colors alone. Making your own game helps information stick better.
You can play this Fish or Steak game alone or in a group.
Expansion 1 - Pronunciation
Practice saying all the key words until you can say them perfectly.
Expansion 2 - Spelling Test
Once you can say all the key words perfectly, hold a spelling test. Perfect scorers get a cheese and apple slice plate.
Expansion 3 - Name the Country of Origin of the Grape Varietal
Once you can perfectly pronounce and spell the names of the different grape varieties, go to the Key Terms section of the Grape Varieties chapter in Sommelier Prep Course and name the country that is considered the country of origin for each grape.
Pronunciation and spelling provide clues about country of origin, which is why I listed this game expansion after those two tasks.
Expansion 4 - Fish or Steak Game for Grape Color Memorization
In this game, you need to make an index pack that will list the grape variety's color along with a clue for the wine color on the back of the index card.
For most of the cards, you can use fish for dishes that go with white wine and steak for dishes that go with red wine. Some white grapes and red grapes can be made into sparkling wines or dessert wines, so you will have to add those categories.
Just making the game index cards helps memorize red and white grape varieties.
Play this game before trying to memorize wine grape variety colors alone. Making your own game helps information stick better.
You can play this Fish or Steak game alone or in a group.
Foreign Wine Geography
Sommelier Game Expansion
Learning
the geographic location of where a wine comes from provides a clue for
memorization about the wine grape variety or varieties used to make it.
Some
of the world’s most famous foreign wines are blends made from different wine
grape varieties like those of the Haut-Médoc in the Bordeaux region of France.
Almost
all prestigious foreign wines go by place names that reveal nothing about the
grape variety or varieties that was (were) used to make it.
The
two exceptions to this state of affairs are Alsace, France and Germany, which
use the grape variety used to make the wine on their labels.
To
play the foreign wine geography memorization game, use index cards to make your
own flash cards. The process of the
making the cards will help you memorize the facts.
An
example of a card follows:
Front
of Card:
Grape
variety: Merlot
Country
of Origin: France
Most
Famous Wine Location: Western
France
Back
of Card:
Most
famous foreign wine:
Saint
Emilion wines from the Bordeaux region.
Do
this for all the foreign wines listed in The
Sommelier Prep Course: An Introduction to the Wines, Beers, and Spirits of the
World by Michael Gibson.
Just
use the directions North, South, East, and West to describe a location in a
country to make the game easier.
By
Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
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