Cuvée Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• The Objective of the Game
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • Phase 1: Planning (4 players)
  • Phase 2: The Weather
    • The microclimate marker
  • Phase 3: Actions
  • Phase 4: End of a Year
  • Phase 5: Preparations for a New Round
• Actions
  • Spring: Grafting
  • Spring: Green Harvest
  • Spring: Sales
  • Summer: Vineyard Care
  • Summer: Construction
  • Autumn 1: Harvest
  • Autumn 1: Land Purchase
  • Autumn 2: Harvest
  • Autumn 2: Blending
    • Examples of blending
  • Winter: Sales
  • Winter: Wine Contest
• Buildings
  • Cellar Expansion
  • Winehouse
  • Restaurant
  • Guesthouse
• Weather
  • Extreme case: a double disaster
• Ageing of the Wine
• Markets
  • Global Market, Local Market
• Endgame Scoring
• Clarification of Some of the Event Cards

The Objective of the Game

The player with the most prestige points wins the game.

Setup

Place the game board on the table and the following items beside it:

1. Crown markers
2. Ageing marker cubes (gold)
3. White wine tiles (6+1 varieties)
4. Red wine tiles (6+1 varieties)
5. The shuffled deck of weather cards, face down
6. The shuffled deck of event cards, face down
7. 4 types of building cards, sorted separately by cost in ascending order.
8. The 5 season boards (Spring, Summer, Autumn 1, Autumn 2 and Winter). For 3-4 players: with the 2-action side up; for 2 players: with the 1-action side up.
9. Shuffle the deck of vineyard cards and place one randomly on each space, with the side facing up where grape variety 2 (in the lower line) is in bold. In the case of 2 players, leave a column on both sides of the board empty.
10. Roll a die to select 1 white and 1 red wine and place the respective wine tiles on the Wholesaler's warehouse. Die rolls between 1 and 6 always refer to the six regular wine/grape varieties. Cuvées are excluded from this selection process.
11. Place the year marker on space 1 of the year track (the game covers a period of 6 years).
12. Each player takes a large cellar (with 3 cellar compartments) and, for each compartment, a cellar token marked with Roman numbers I-II-III.
13. Everyone takes 2 microclimate markers (golden sticks).
14. Each player takes a scoring board and places a marker in the 0 space of each tens track and in the 5 space of each ones track: a gold disc for the coins and a turquoise cube for the prestige points. (Players start with 5 coins as capital and 5 prestige points as a reserve to cover initial losses.)
15. Wine barrels (15 per colour)
16. Dice (12 per colour)
17. Cellar expansion boards IV and V
18. Cellar tokens IV and V (one side for red wine, the other for white wine, in the appropriate colour)

Select the first player by lot. The turn order shall be clockwise.

Starting with the first player, all players select a vineyard marked C; then, starting from the last player in reverse order, they all select another vineyard of C category.

All players place on each of their vineyards:

1. 1 worker*
2. 1 die showing the same value as on the vineyard card
3. 2 barrels (up to 2 barrels can be stored on a vineyard)

* A worker can manage two adjacent vineyards. Therefore, it is sufficient to place one worker between two adjacent vineyards. While this will cost less, it involves a greater risk: if you are unable to pay the worker's wages, you lose all the vineyards this worker manages.

The first player gets the cork (starting player marker). This indicates who started the round in the current year. At the end of each year, the marker is passed to the next player in the turn order.

Gameplay

Each round (year) has five phases: Phase 1: Planning; Phase 2: The weather; Phase 3: Actions; Phase 4: End of a year; Phase 5: Preparations of a new round.

Phase 1: Planning (4 players)

Each player, in turn order, selects a season that has not been selected yet by anyone and places a figure on the season board in the round space on the left.

Then, in reverse order, players place their second figure on another season board; however, none of the players may select the fifth season that has not been selected by anyone in the first turn, or place both their figures on the same season board.

Important: The starting player, who was the first to select a season, will have only one remaining option to place the 8th figure. It may happen that the player making the 7th selection is also left with a single choice, as this player must make sure that a space remains available for the player selecting last.

Variation for 3 players: Start the planning phase with rolling the die, then use the figures of the 4th (unused) colour as a "dummy" to mark a season based on the roll (between 1 and 5; if the result is 6, roll again). Then the first player begins the planning phase the same way as in the case of 4 players. While selecting a season in reverse order, make sure that the second figure of the dummy colour can also be placed on a space properly. (In the action phase, these dummies will be disregarded.)

Variation for 2 players: Use the reverse side of the season boards, which offer a single space. The players place their figures on the board alternately.

Phase 2: The Weather

Draw a weather card from the deck and place it on the unselected season. Check if the corresponding weather icon is displayed on the given season board. If it is, the effect of the weather card will apply, but only when the affected season comes (see the details later). If not (or if it shows "Good Weather"), ignore the card; the weather will have no effect.

If the weather card applies to the late autumn (Autumn 2) or winter season, the impact will not affect the grapes in that year (as harvest is over), but it will affect the quality of the harvest next year. This can be prevented if you spend on damage relief.

The impact of the weather in other seasons can be avoided by using microclimate markers.

The microclimate marker

Each player may use 1 microclimate marker stick per round in up to 2 rounds of the game. When laid on the board, the marker has a protective effect until the end of the round (year), then it is removed from the game. Place a stick in any of the 4 gaps between the vineyards (only 1 piece in a gap).

The markers are placed on the board in turn order, and their orientation can be either vertical or horizontal. The orientation determines the direction in which the protection applies (row or column): all the vineyards in the entire row or column, respectively, are protected, whoever owns the vineyards.

Players decide about the use of their microclimate markers in the Weather phase and not in the affected season in the Actions phase, when the actual damages occur.

For a description of the forces of nature and their effects, see the Weather chapter.

Phase 3: Actions

Actions are resolved from season to season in the order they follow, always starting with the player whose figure is on the left.

The players who selected a given season may choose and resolve altogether 2 actions of those listed on the season board. Actions marked with (2x) can be chosen twice. Next, the player whose figure is on the right chooses and resolves 2 actions in the same way. Those players who have not selected the season (their figure is not on the season board) are entitled to 1 action in turn order; the starting player begins.

(In a 3-player game, there will be two seasons when only one of the players can resolve two actions. In a 2-player game, one of the players will have two actions and the other only one in a given season).

When all players have finished their actions for a season, the figures are returned to their owners. Actions are described in the Actions chapter.

Phase 4: End of a Year

Players go through the following series of tasks, strictly in this order. (With the exception of the Wholesaler transactions, more experienced players may do the end-of-year tasks simultaneously to save time).

Task 1: Deliver the required supplies for your buildings (2-3 barrels of wine per building) and pay wages to the workers (1 coin per worker).

If you fail to pay or don't want to pay (all) the wages due, the properties (vineyard or building) managed by the unpaid worker(s) will be lost (you may choose which ones). If the worker(s) in a building are unpaid, the building is immediately removed, but the land remains in your possession, and its status will be reset as a category C property at the beginning of the next year (when preparing for a new round).

If the worker at a vineyard is unpaid, you lose ownership of the land. If this worker has been managing two vineyards, both will be lost.

If you are unable to deliver the wine requirements to one of your buildings at the end of the year, the building will be immediately removed.

You may freely relocate and rearrange your workers the way it suits you best (their number is limited!), only the minimum requirements must be observed.

Task 2: Collect the annual revenues from your buildings (coins and prestige points).

Task 3: Everyone can sell and/or buy wine at the Wholesaler's warehouse (wholesale transactions).

In turn order, players may sell their wine or buy wine from the Wholesaler, but always a single wine variety at a time and not more than 3 barrels; when it is your turn again, you may sell/buy the same way. When nobody wants to do more transactions with the Wholesaler, continue with the next year-end task (ageing of wines).

• BULK BUY: The Wholesaler buys any wine for 1 coin per barrel. When you sell your wine to the Wholesaler, move the wine tile from your cellar to the Wholesaler's warehouse - if there is no identical tile yet. You earn 1 coin for a barrel, regardless of the wine quality.
• WHOLESALE: You may also buy wine from the Wholesaler: only those wine varieties can be purchased that are in the Wholesaler's warehouse, and not more than 3 barrels of a specific variety, in quality level 2 (for 2 coins per barrel) or quality level 3 (for 3 coins per barrel). When you make a purchase, take the selected wine tile and place it in your cellar, marking it with the respective number of barrels and a die to indicate quality level (2 or 3).

The Wholesaler must always keep at least 2 styles of wine (1 red and 1 white) in stock. Any time when the stock runs low, roll the die to select a new wine (or wines) to replenish the wine tile(s) (same procedure as in the setup phase).

Important: The Wholesaler also buys cuvées but only pays the same price as for regular wines and never resells them. Any cuvée tiles sold to the Wholesaler are discarded, and cuvées are not used to replenish the stock.

Task 4: Wines are ageing in your cellar. To indicate ageing, put a golden ageing marker cube on the wine tile. After a wine gets a second ageing marker, increase its quality by 1 level. To do this, turn the relevant die to the next higher value and remove the cubes. More than one ageing marker is never stored in a cellar compartment.

Check the Player Aid card supplied in the game box for a summary of the year-end tasks.

Phase 5: Preparations for a New Round

• Remove all your markers from the Global Market/Local Market/Wine Contest fields.
• Reset the dice values on the vineyards and put 2 barrels on each.
• Move the year marker 1 space forward on the year track.
• Pass the cork to the next starting player.

Actions

Seasons and their actions: Spring: Grafting, Green harvest, Sales. Summer: Vineyard care, Construction. Autumn 1: Harvest, Land purchase. Autumn 2: Harvest, Blending. Winter: Sales, Wine Contest.

Players who have placed a figure on the given season can resolve two actions, while other players can only resolve one.

If you decide not to select an action in a turn, you get 1 coin as compensation. If you are entitled to 2 actions in a season, you may decide to do only one and get a coin instead of the other one. You may also decide to skip both of your actions; in this case, you get 1 coin for one of the skipped actions, and you may draw an event card for the second. The event card can be played either immediately or at any time later, but you cannot play more than one card in a turn. (See the explanation of some of the event cards at the end of these rules.)

The following actions are available on the season boards:

Spring: Grafting

You may turn your vineyard cards to the other side. This affects the initial quality level of the grape. Upgrading a vineyard costs 2 coins; downgrading (turning the card back) is free. You may improve as many vineyards as you wish (or can afford) in one grafting action.

When you select grafting, increase the quality level of the grape on a given vineyard by 1: set the die to the next higher number. (This will be the initial quality level of this grape in the subsequent years.) When turning back to the lower level, reduce the quality level accordingly. After the grafting action, you will produce a different wine variety on this vineyard.

This action can be selected only once.

Spring: Green Harvest

The green harvest allows you to improve the quality of your grapes by 2 levels in any or all of your vineyards; to do so, set the dice to +2 values higher. Accordingly, the production volume is reduced by 1 barrel. (Remove a barrel from the vineyard: if there were 2 barrels, only 1 remains on the card. You may freely decide how many and which vineyards you want to improve in a single green harvest action. If, due to damage by the weather, there is only 1 barrel on the vineyard, the green harvest cannot be selected).

This action can be selected only once.

Spring: Sales

Sell up to 2 barrels of wine of at least quality level 3 in one of the markets (Global or Local) if there is still a demand (empty space) on that market for the quality of the wine to be sold. If there is no such specific demand, you may decide to sell the wine at a lower quality level, according to the conditions of that category.

(In a 2-player game, a limit is applicable, as shown on the board: no barrels can be placed on the spaces displaying 3 people. This icon indicates that the space is available in the case of at least 3 players.)

This action can be selected twice.

Summer: Vineyard Care

You may improve the quality of your grapes by 1 level. (Set the die to +1 value higher.) You are free to decide how many vineyards you want to improve in the vineyard care action.

This action can be selected twice.

Summer: Construction

Buy one of the four types of building cards and use it to raise a building on one of your existing vineyards. You can only build on a category C vineyard.

Place the building card on the selected vineyard card. Pay the price of the building and put the required number of workers on it, as shown on the card.

From this moment on, viticulture will cease on this property. Remove the barrels and put them back in your stock. But you continue to own the land, and this is indicated by your workers employed there.

Use the same action to remove a building. In this case, the cellar card is discarded (removed from the game), and the vineyard "below" is restored immediately. Any dismissed workers can be deployed elsewhere (but make sure that a worker still attends to the vineyard and is paid at the end of the year). The same applies when a building is removed because you have failed to meet a requirement (see under Buildings).

Important: You must not construct and remove the same building in the same round.

(The types of buildings are listed in the Buildings chapter.)

This action can be selected twice.

Autumn 1: Harvest

You may harvest any or all of the vineyards where you have barrels and workers. You should harvest all your vineyards during the autumn seasons, otherwise you get a -2 prestige point penalty for each vineyard not harvested. But there is no need to harvest all of them at the same time. If both autumn seasons are available, you can do a second harvest action in late autumn. When you harvest a vineyard, remove all your barrels from there.

• Place a wine tile of the harvested grape variety in the cellar.
• Put a die on it, marking the quality level of the grape.
• Take the barrels from the vineyard and put them on the respective wine tiles in the cellar.

You may store up to 3 barrels in a cellar compartment. (If you harvest identical variety and quality from two vineyards, you may combine them in the same compartment as long as the 3 barrels are not exceeded.)

Repeat the same procedure for every vineyard you want to harvest.

If you have no more space in your cellar, you have two options: either discard an item to empty a cellar compartment or postpone the harvest. Discarding the contents of a cellar compartment costs -2 prestige points (which is equal to the penalty due after an unharvested vineyard).

This action can be selected only once.

Autumn 1: Land Purchase

You may buy a new, unoccupied vineyard. The selected land must be in the same row or column where you already own a property (vineyard or building). Don't forget, two adjacent vineyards can be attended to by a single worker; in this case, place the worker between the two cards. (This does not apply if the adjacent card is a building; you need to put workers on both cards.)

Prices by vineyard category:

• C = 2 coins
• B = 3 coins
• A = 5 coins

The new vineyard produces grapes already in the same year. Bear in mind: you must harvest it to avoid the -2 points penalty.

This action can be selected twice.

Autumn 2: Harvest

Harvesting is done the same way as in the Autumn 1 season. To avoid penalties, you should now resolve this action on any vineyards not yet harvested.

This action can be selected only once.

Autumn 2: Blending

You may blend 2 or 3 wines stored in your cellar. White wines can be blended with white and red wines with red only. You may blend identical wine varieties or 2-3 different ones, but never 2 identical ones with 1 different.

When you blend 1+1 barrels of 2 different wines, you get 2 barrels of cuvée. The result of the blending process is generally the same number of barrels as the number of components, but never more than 3. (This means there might be some surplus barrels that are lost in this procedure, but such loss is not subject to penalty.) The quality of the new cuvée shall be the sum of the blended wines' quality levels, divided by 2 (rounded down)*. With this method, cuvées blended from 2 components will be of lower quality than the better of the blended wines. In case of 3 components, however, it may be even higher than the best one. E.g.: 3+3+4 -> 10 / 2 = 5

* Exception: if at least one of the cuvée components has an ageing marker, the result is rounded upwards.

The cuvée can also be made in another empty cellar compartment. In the case of two components (e.g. in a 2-2-0 scenario), you can choose to put the new blended wine in the third cellar compartment (1-1-2); and if you have expanded the cellar (by placing a Cellar Expansion building card on one of your properties), you can even create a three-component cuvée in the empty cellar (2-2-2-0 -> 1-1-1-3).

Newly blended cuvées cannot be created using an existing cuvée.

When blending different wines, take a cuvée tile and place it in the cellar compartment where the blending is done. Put the component wine tiles (if no more barrels are linked to them) back into the stock and set the die to the quality level of the cuvée.

This action can be selected twice.

Examples of blending

1. In Judy's cellar, there is a barrel of quality level 4 Merlot left over from the previous year. With this year's harvest, she has put two more Merlots in her cellar: 2 barrels of quality 3, and 1 barrel of quality 5. She wants to improve the quality of her Merlot, so she decides to blend it. Currently, 1-2-1 barrels are in her cellar compartments; she transfers 1 barrel each from the first and second cellar compartments to the third compartment, so the new arrangement will be 0-1-3 barrels. After adding up the values, the result is a blended wine of quality level 6 [(4+3+5) / 2 = 6] in a quantity of 3 barrels. She discards the wine tile from the empty first cellar, but there is still a barrel of quality 3 Merlot from this year's harvest in the second cellar.

2. This year, Matt placed 2 barrels of Riesling and 1 barrel of Chardonnay in his cellar, both of quality level 4. He decides to make a cuvée by blending these two wines. Thus, the original line-up of 2-1-0 barrels in his cellar compartments becomes 1-2-0, and he replaces the second (Chardonnay) wine tile with a "White Cuvée" tile. Although the resulting cuvée is also of quality level 4 [(4+4) / 2 = 4], he can earn extra money or prestige points by selling it on the market. With some luck, he can even win a prize at the Wine Contest with one of the barrels, and the grand prize (especially the crown) will help him make further profits on the markets.

Winter: Sales

The same rules apply as discussed under Spring.

This action can be selected twice.

Winter: Wine Contest

You can submit 1 or 2 of your wines to the wine-rating contest. You may submit 2 wines only if this is your selected season, but one of them must be white and the other red. There is no privilege for cuvées here (they are rated as white or red wines). Up to 4 wines can be submitted to the contest, as there are 4 spaces on the board.

All players are invited to the Wine Contest. The players who have selected the season can submit 2 wines, and other players (in turn order) 1 wine to the contest. (Exception: the Recommended by an Expert event card.) The contest is evaluated when every player has had the chance to participate (or passed).

You may submit any wine of at least quality level 4. When submitting a wine, place the cellar token indicating the cellar number and wine style (red or white) in the appropriate space and the barrel on top of it.

White and red wines are rated separately. Those of higher value will win the grand prize, and there are 2nd prize winners too. Grand prize winners also receive the crown marker if there is still at least one more barrel of the same wine in the player's cellar. A crowned wine can be sold on the markets for a high price, but it can no longer be submitted to a Wine Contest.

In the case of a tie, the wine with an ageing marker is considered to be the higher-rated wine. If both wines have one, that is a dead heat. In this case, both competitors receive the 2nd prize, but both are awarded the crown. Multiple Wine Contests can be held in a year if more than one player chooses this winter action.

This action can be selected only once.

Example of the Wine Contest

Vicky has 2 barrels of quality 5 Furmint left over from last year, so there is an ageing marker in the cellar compartment. She can choose two actions as she has her action selection figure on the Winter season. She starts by opening the Wine Contest. Vicky can submit two wines; in addition to the Furmint, she decides to compete with her only red wine, a quality 4 Pinot Noir. First, she puts her Cellar I token (with the green side up) in the top left space of the Wine Contest board and puts a barrel on it from that cellar. As the announcer of the Wine Contest, she can submit 2 wines, so she places her Cellar II token (with the burgundy side up) in the top right space and puts a barrel of Pinot Noir on it. All players are invited to the Wine Contest. The next player has other plans and declines to participate. But the third player jumps at the opportunity and submits a quality 5 Malbec (he puts his cellar token and a barrel in the lowest space on the red wine side). The fourth player also enters the competition because he thinks his quality 5 Sauvignon Blanc, harvested this year, may be a candidate - but he overlooks Vicky's ageing marker in her cellar. So, Vicky wins the contest of white wines and gets the grand prize (the fourth player gets the 2nd prize); in addition, as Vicky still has a barrel of the winning Furmint left, she also takes a crown marker to put in her cellar. However, her Pinot Noir only achieves 2nd prize in the red wine competition, with the third player taking the grand prize - but no crown, as he has no more barrels of his winning Malbec. Vicky's next action in this winter season is Sales, so she sells her last barrel of Furmint for the increased price, as applicable to crown-winning wines.

Buildings

Building types: Cellar expansion, Winehouse, Restaurant, Guesthouse.

You may build on a category C vineyard. No buildings can be raised on category A and B properties. Always the topmost building of the selected type is available for purchase. (In the setup phase, the 4 types of building cards were arranged in ascending order by their price.)

Each building card shows: the name of the building, the price of the building, the required number of barrels, the required wine quality, the number of workers, the prestige points generated by the building, and the revenue generated by the building.

Place the newly acquired building card on top of the vineyard card. (As long as there is a building on the vineyard, no grapes are grown there.) Then, place on the building as many workers as indicated on the building card.

(If you have no workers available to run the building, you should reallocate workers from your existing buildings/vineyards. If you are still unable to send out the necessary number of workers, you cannot build the selected building.)

If a building is left without workers, it must be permanently removed from the game. Similarly, if you lose a building because you are unable to supply the required quantity of wine or pay the workers, remove the building from the game.

(If you abandon a vineyard - there is no worker on it, or the worker is not paid at the end of the year - the vineyard remains on the board, but you no longer own it. In the latter case, put the worker back in your stock.)

Cellar Expansion

Expand your cellar at the cost of 2-3-4 coins. A cellar expansion board provides an expansion of 1 cellar compartment in addition to the existing 3 units, plus 2 prestige points immediately. Cellar expansions do not generate further revenues. Place a worker on the card to maintain the cellar unit, and make sure to pay his wages at the end of the year (or you lose the expansion).

Players may upgrade their cellar with up to 2 expansion units (numbered IV and V), as long as cellar expansion boards are available.

If a cellar expansion is no longer maintained, you lose its contents, unless you can move the barrels to another cellar compartment where there is enough room for them. If any wines must be discarded from the lost unit, you pay a -1 prestige point penalty for each discarded barrel.

Winehouse

Build a Winehouse at the cost of 3-4-5 coins and place 1 worker on it. At the end of the round (year), you must put 2 barrels of wine (any variety or quality) on the card. (The wines must be from your own cellar and may be of the same or a different variety.) The Winehouse yields 6 coins plus 2 prestige points at the end of each round (year). Players may have an unlimited number of wine houses (as long as the stock lasts).

Restaurant

Build a Restaurant at the cost of 4-5-6 coins and place 2 workers on it. The Restaurant needs 3 barrels of wine (any variety or quality) at the end of the round (year), to be placed on the card. (The wines must be from your own cellar and may be of the same or a different variety.) A Restaurant yields 7 coins plus 4 prestige points at the end of each round (year). Players may have an unlimited number of restaurants (as long as the stock lasts).

Guesthouse

Build a Guesthouse at the cost of 4-5-6 coins and place 2 workers on it. The Guesthouse needs 2 barrels of wine of at least quality level 4 at the end of the round (year) to be placed on the card. A Guesthouse yields 7 coins plus 4 prestige points each round (year). Players may have an unlimited number of Guesthouses (as long as the stock lasts).

Weather

Certain events of nature cause damage to your vineyards. The damage has two types of impact:

• Reduces the quality of grapes by 1 level (the dice must be set to one lower value), or
• Reduces the quantity to be harvested by 1 barrel. (Remove one of the two barrels from the vineyard and return it to your stock.)

Weather card types:

• Good weather has no negative effect on any season.
• Drought causes damage in summer.
• Rainfall causes damage in summer and early autumn.
• Hailstorm causes damage in spring, summer, and autumn.
• Frostbite causes damage in spring and late autumn.
• Animals - damage may occur in any season.

The affected seasons are displayed on the weather cards.

If the natural forces affect the Spring, Summer and Autumn 1 seasons, the players decide individually, for each of their vineyards, whether the impact will affect the grape quality or the harvested quantity. Damage occurring in these seasons can be eliminated only in the Weather Phase by using microclimate markers.

IMPORTANT: If the grape quality of a vineyard is at level 1, you have to reduce the number of barrels.

If the weather card applies to the late autumn (Autumn 2) and Winter seasons, it will affect the quality of next year's crops. The only way to mitigate these future impacts on exposed vineyards is to spend on damage relief immediately in the season when the weather event occurs. Damage relief costs 1 coin per vineyard.

This is no longer an option later; if you fail to spend on damage relief in the current year, you must face a downturn next spring (in quality or quantity). To indicate this, put an ageing marker cube on each of your affected vineyards. Then, when preparing for the next round, execute the impacts as described above and remove the cubes.

The weather only affects the vineyards. No need to protect buildings.

Extreme case: a double disaster

Occasionally, it could happen that you had been unable to afford the cost of damage relief (1 coin) for a C vineyard at the end of the previous year, and as a result, the expected yield of the vineyard had to be reduced by 1 barrel at the beginning of the new round because the quality level 1 could not be decreased any further.

Then, the players made their selections in such an unfortunate way that another weather event will have an adverse effect on this vineyard in the spring of the following year, and you don't even have a microclimate marker to prevent it.

In this exceptional situation, you have to remove the second barrel too, so your vineyard will not yield anything that year.

However, your worker will stay in place, and you have to pay him at the end of the year to retain ownership of the vineyard.

Ageing of the Wine

At the preparation phase of a new year, all wines stored in your cellar (whether harvested or purchased) receive 1 ageing marker cube (gold), which applies to each barrel of that particular wine.

The first ageing marker does not affect the quality of the wine yet. However, it is a tiebreaker in the Wine Contest, and adds to the quality of cuvées because an ageing cube allows the result to be rounded upwards when calculating the blended wine's quality level. (Furthermore, wines of quality level 3 with an ageing marker qualify for sale at the Christmas Deal event.)

When a wine gets the second ageing marker, its quality increases by 1 level. Set the die accordingly and remove the ageing markers from the wine tile. Subsequently, every second ageing marker will improve the wine's quality by 1 level.

Markets

Global Market, Local Market

The difference between the two markets is reflected in the amount of money and prestige points received for a particular quality of wine. While you can earn more money in the foreign market, local sales yield more prestige points.

Demand for wines of the same quality level is limited to 1-2-3 barrels in a round, respectively, on both markets. (In the case of 2 players, demand is reduced to 1-2 barrels.)

Selling a cuvée earns you +2 coins more in a given category on the Global Market, and +2 prestige points on the Local Market.

When selling an award-winning (crowned) wine, you earn 1-2 more coins or prestige points on both markets, as shown on the board.

Both bonuses apply to crowned cuvées.

When you sell a wine on any of the markets, put one barrel of the given wine in a free space next to the appropriate category; the barrel remains there until the end of the round.

Note: the coin and prestige point amounts per quality category are printed on the market boards and shown only in the rulebook's illustration (Figure 18); they are not given in the rulebook text.

Endgame Scoring

At the end of the 6th year:

Players who did not spend on weather damage relief (if there was any damage) in the preceding late autumn and winter seasons receive a penalty of -1 prestige point per vineyard (not applicable to buildings). The wines are no longer aged. Any number of event cards may still be played.

Additionally, players receive 1 prestige point for each property they own (vineyards and buildings) and 1 prestige point for every 3 coins remaining.

The final scores are shown on the players' prestige point track.

In case of a tie, the following will be decisive, in this order:

• Number of category A vineyards;
• Number of category B vineyards;

If there is still a tie, the players share the glory.

Clarification of Some of the Event Cards

During the game, you may play only one event card in your turn, but more than one simultaneously at the end of the game.

Advertising - Start your first turn of the year (before the spring actions) by playing this card and paying the 2 coins. Keep the card until the end of the year, when you can collect the extra revenues.

Outstanding Tourist Traffic - If you play this event, you get +2 coins after each of your buildings at the end of the year, except for cellar expansions.

Grant - The price of the land or building cannot be reduced below 0.

Culinary Investor - This year, all your Restaurants and Guesthouses will earn you -2 coins less.

Favourable Microclimate - This year, all your vineyards are protected from the effects of the weather. (Other players are not protected.)

Raise a Loan - If you are unable to repay the loan by the end of the 3rd year, you get a penalty of -2 prestige points. If the game ends in less than 3 years, you should pay off the loan by the end of the game (or face the penalty of -2 prestige points).

Active Spring/Summer/Winter - The cards do not apply to one-time actions; you can still choose these actions only once.

A Neighbour's Offering - You may harvest 2 barrels of grapes from an unoccupied neighbouring vineyard (an adjacent vineyard not owned by any player) and assign them quality level 4 (as if they were on the selected land).

The Cellar is Full - When you play this card, you must have at least one barrel in each of your cellar compartments.

Christmas Deal - You may also sell wines of quality level 3 with an ageing marker.