Wine Tycoon Review

In the often frantic world of first-person shooter video games, Wine Tycoon takes a step back to a more relaxing level of gaming.

by Mike Supple
published: 05 Nov 2009

Wine Tycoon creates an impressively in-depth world of French winemaking that is accessible to everyone from the casual sipper to connoisseur. The game explores ten of France's most famous wine regions - from Bordeaux to Burgundy to Champagne - allowing you to build your wine empire from the ground up (so to speak). An impressive amount of research has gone into creating this game, and each wine region presents unique situations in terms of vineyard management and wine composition. The specific regions allow you to work with different sets of grape varieties - 40 in all - to produce up to 50 different kinds of wine. And although this may sound a bit daunting, an optional game tutorial pops up at the beginning of each "level" to help hold your hand until you're confident with the controls. While the tutorial is fairly in depth, it can also leave you stranded at times. If that happens, just keep clicking on different buildings or menus and the tutorial generally pops back up to fill in the missing gaps of information.

There are two different methods of game play for you to explore: Career and Freeplay. Career mode starts you with a skeleton winery in the region of Alsace, with the mission to build your winery into a reputable and reliable producer. As you complete the tasks set for you in each region, you progress through the game, making different wines in each of the ten regions - from the rambling country vineyards of southern France to the massive Chateaux of Bordeaux.

To complete the various tasks assigned in each region, you will often have to problem solve before you can begin your mass production and global domination. The vineyards you take over are poorly tended and sometimes planted with the wrong varieties for filling the changing demands of the market. Winery equipment in disrepair will need to be fixed or replaced, and the hiring - or firing - of the staff is crucial to your success. Just make sure you take good note of the task set before you at the beginning of each new challenge, as there does not seem to be a way to bring up a reminder mid-level. Some of the tasks require you to produce and age bottles of wine for many years, and realizing halfway through that you do not remember the exact assignment can require you to start all over again, sacrificing many lost hours.

If a full career as a wine baron isn't quite your thing, Freeplay allows you to jump right into your favorite wine region. Roll up your sleeves, plant some vines, bring in the required machinery and set your sights on becoming the next wine billionaire.

The accuracy of the game is rather impressive. Each region is well represented by the unique wines they produce and the many different grape varieties required to produce the right blends. From sorting to crushing to fermenting to aging to bottling, every step in the wine making process is covered. And for those of us who aren't farmers, the importance of monitoring the fields for pests, weeds, nutrients and overgrowth quickly becomes apparent. There is even a bonus encyclopedia in the main menu full of fun and interesting wine entries that apply to topics well beyond the scope of the game.

Now and then some of my winery workers would just stop what they were doing and stand in the middle of a room, stalling production entirely. This may be an attempt at realistically portraying French productivity, but it could also be a minor bug. Generally a quick firing and rehiring of the staff worked, but on a couple occasions I had to demolish and rebuild larger machinery to get them going again. A few other glitches surface from time to time - particularly one about not finding certain files - but a quick tap of the "Enter" key always got the game going again.

This game is a great secret time killer for the office because sound is definitely not necessary. In fact, after a few minutes of the same French-inspired accordion song loop, you'll likely be stabbing for the power button on your speakers anyway.

Overall, Wine Tycoon is a fun, relaxing and informative entry into the world of French winemaking. As in real life, there is no fast way to fortune through wine, so plan on taking your time and spacing your game out over a long period. The satisfaction of rebuilding a faltering vineyard and seeing your bottles of wine sell is very rewarding. Grab a glass and fire up the old computer. And be ready - you just might find some unique new wines to add to your list of favorites.

Available now only for PC.
MSRP: $19.99
Copy provided by Got Game Entertainment to SuppleWine for review.