Using Pictionary for a Wine Tasting Game

If you’ve ever played Pictionary, you know how much fun it is to come up with hysterical pictures that are meant to resemble clues. What if you combined wine tasting with Pictionary? Let me introduce you to Roland Micu who is America’s youngest master sommelier. His claim to fame is that he thinks about wine in shapes. “For instance, after sipping gruner veltliner (a crisp Austrian white wine), he draws what looks like a starfish on a cocktail napkin. ‘This is what I see when I taste this wine,’ he says. ‘This is its texture.’ A fruitier, full-bodied red blend from Sonoma County inspires what looks like a Rorschach blot. While it is not unheard of to see imagery when tasting, it is rare.”

Introducing a Picturesque Wine Tasting Game

For this wine tasting game, you’ll need a bunch of white index cards and some pencils.

Each guest will sample the same wine. One guest will be the Judge. This designation will rotate around the room. As guests taste the wine, they will draw a shape that comes to mind on their card, being careful not to show anyone what they draw. Don’t worry. You don’t need to be a masterful artist to do this. 

When everyone is done, they will slide their upside down card to the Judge, who will turn them over and choose the one that he or she feels is the best interpretation of the wine. The guest who drew the selected picture will get a point.

You will play this way, rotating Judges, for however many bottles of wine you are sampling.

The winner will be the person who wins the most “rounds.” If there is a tie, you’ll need to open up a few more bottles for a tiebreaker.

There are so many fun ways to enjoy wine with friends. As the weather warms up and the days get longer, a wine interpretation event could be just the ticket.

If you’ve done a similar wine tasting game, please share your experiences here.