Wine & Cheese Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Playing the Game
• Spring
  • First Phase: Send Workers to Plots
    • Ingredients and Processing Sites
    • The Plots
    • Playing the Phase
    • Taking Your Turn
  • Second Phase: Production/Sale
    • A) Perform 1 Production
    • Label Actions
    • B) Sell Cards From Your Cellars
    • C) Drop Out of the Phase
    • 3-for-1 Trade
  • The Money Track
  • The Special Actions of the Action Cards
  • Third Phase: Storage
• Summer
  • First Phase: Aging
  • Second Phase: Trigger Special Actions
• Fall
  • First Phase: Return Workers From Plots
  • Second and Third Phases
• Winter
  • First Winter
  • Second Winter
• The Cellar Closed Card
• End of the Game
  • Scoring

Components

• 1 game board
• 24 wine cards
• 24 cheese cards
• 70 ingredient markers
• 1 phase marker
• 8 housing cards: 4 Work Together cards, 4 Toil Alone cards
• 2 Cellar Closed cards (1 per player)
• 10 workers (2 each of 5 colors)
• 10 benches/hats (2 each of 5 colors). On a flat surface, they are benches. On a worker's head, they are hats.
• 2 wine indicators (1 per player)
• 2 cheese indicators (1 per player)
• 1 scoring pad
• 2 turn order cards, showing the numbers 1 and 2

Setup

1. Place the game board horizontally between you. Each player has a farmstead on their side, which shows their crest and where their processing sites and cellars belong.

   Between the two farmsteads are the calendar track, the housing spaces, the money track, and the plot grid. On one of the edges is the card display with 3 slots each for wine and cheese cards.

2. Take the housing cards. Shuffle the 4 Work Together cards and place one face up on the first, third, and fifth housing spaces. Then, shuffle the 4 Toil Alone cards and place one face up on the second and fourth housing spaces.

   Ensure that the crests on the roofs are correctly aligned: on each player's side, there must be 5 houses with the crest of their farmstead. These 5 houses are referred to as that player's own houses.

   Return the three remaining housing cards to the box.

3. Take the two benches of one chosen color and place them onto the phase-marker symbol on the calendar track.

   Then, take one bench of each of the 4 remaining colors and distribute them as you like among the 4 houses with crests that lie in a row next to the plot grid. Leave the house on the outer edge free.

   Next, take the 4 remaining benches and distribute them at random among the 4 houses with crests that are opposite the previously placed benches.

   Finally, place a matching worker onto each of the 10 benches.

4. Place the wine and cheese indicators on the starting space of the money track, in the sections with their crests.

5. Place the 70 ingredient markers next to the game board to form a supply.

   Then, place one ingredient marker onto each of the 3 bonus spaces along the money track.

   Place the following ingredient markers onto each farmstead:

   • 1 onto the white grapes processing site
   • 1 onto the red grapes processing site
   • 2 onto the milk processing site

6. Place the phase marker onto the first space of the calendar track.

7. Shuffle the 24 wine cards and deal 3 cards face down to each player.

   Then, draw 3 more wine cards and place them face up in the 3 wine slots of the card display. Place the remaining wine cards as the face-down wine card deck next to the wine cards in the display.

   Next, shuffle the 24 cheese cards and deal 3 cards face down to each player. Then, draw 3 more cheese cards and place them face up in the 3 cheese slots of the card display. Place the remaining cheese cards as the face-down cheese card deck next to the cheese cards in the display.

   Each player takes the 6 cards dealt to them into their hand.

8. Each player takes the Cellar Closed card with their crest and places it in their rightmost cellar slot (the one next to the silver coin space). This closed slot can't be used until its card has been removed (see "The Cellar Closed Card").

Playing the Game

The general flow of Wine & Cheese is shown on the calendar track. The game lasts two years, each consisting of the seasons of spring, summer, fall, and winter. Each season consists of two or three phases.

The current phase is indicated by the phase marker. Whenever you complete a phase, advance the phase marker to the next phase to begin it.

The phases are explained in the following sections.

Spring

First Phase: Send Workers to Plots

Ingredients and Processing Sites

In this phase, you collect the ingredients you'll need later to play wine and cheese cards from your hand into your cellar slots. Each card shows the ingredients it requires on its bottom left.

There are 7 types of ingredients:

4 wine ingredients: white grapes, red grapes, yeast, and sugar, as well as 3 cheese ingredients: salt, cultures, and milk.

On your farmstead, each ingredient has its own processing site, where you use ingredient markers to show which ingredients you have. Each ingredient marker on a processing site represents 1 ingredient of that type.

Note: Ingredient markers are considered unlimited. If there are no markers left in the supply, use something else as a substitute.

The Plots

To get ingredients, you will place your workers from their houses onto the plots of the plot grid during this phase. The plot grid consists of 17 plots and 3 water holes:

• 15 of the plots belong to a specific ingredient (5 x milk, 3 x white grapes, 3 x red grapes, 2 x sugar, 2 x salt).
• 2 plots are laboratory plots, where both yeast and cultures are available.
• The water holes are not plots; they are solely obstacles and can never be entered.

Playing the Phase

You take turns in a set order. On your turn, you take a worker from one of your own houses and place it onto an empty plot, where it immediately generates ingredients (details follow below).

The order in which you take these turns is determined by the turn order cards:

The player with the 1 card takes the first turn. The player with the 2 card takes the second and third turns. The player with the 1 card then takes the fourth and fifth turns, and this double-turn rhythm continues until all workers have been placed.

Important: The workers available to you in this phase are the ones on your own houses and each of them forms a pair with the worker of the same color on your opponent's houses. The important part is that the two workers of each pair must be selected back to back. This means that on odd-numbered turns, you can choose a worker of any color from your own houses. On your opponent's directly ensuing turn, they must then "choose" their worker of the same color.

Example: If the player with the 1 turn order card chooses the blue worker on their first turn, the other player must also "choose" the blue worker on their ensuing turn.

Taking Your Turn

After "choosing" your worker, take it from its bench and place it onto any empty plot. This activates up to 3 plots. Which plots are activated depends on the housing card from which you took the worker (where the bench remains as a marker). The housing card shows a plot pattern of 3 adjacent plots. The red plot in the pattern represents the plot where you just placed your worker. You must project this pattern onto the plot grid of the game board, as it appears from your point of view.

For example:

If you place your blue worker from housing card 1 onto plot A, plots A, B, and C are activated by the pattern.

If you place your blue worker from housing card 1 onto plot D, only plot D is activated by the pattern because there are no additional plots in that direction.

The activated plots now generate ingredients depending on whether the plot pattern belongs to the Toil Alone or Work Together category.

If the plot pattern belongs to the Toil Alone category, the plot where you placed the worker generates 1 ingredient of its type. Each of the other activated plots generates 1 ingredient of its own type, but only if it is empty (i.e., there is no worker on it).

If the plot pattern belongs to the Work Together category, the plot where you placed the worker generates 2 ingredients of its type. Each of the other activated plots generates 1 ingredient of its own type, but only if there is a worker on it.

For each ingredient generated, take an ingredient marker from the supply and place it onto the processing site for that type on your farmstead. For each ingredient you produce on a laboratory plot, decide whether it is 1 yeast or 1 culture.

Toil Alone examples:

If you place your blue worker from Toil Alone card 1 onto plot A, you generate 1 x sugar (on A), 1 x milk (on B), and 1 x white grapes (on C), so you place one ingredient marker from the supply onto each of your sugar, milk, and white grapes processing sites.

If you place your blue worker from Toil Alone card 1 onto plot B, you generate only 1 x milk (on B) and 1 x white grapes (on C). Plot D generates nothing because it is not empty.

Work Together examples:

If you place your red worker from Work Together card 2 onto the laboratory plot E, you generate 2 ingredients on that plot (and you choose if that is to be 2 x yeast, 2 x cultures, or 1 of each). Plot F generates nothing because there is no worker on it.

If you place your red worker from Work Together card 2 on plot G, you generate 2 x salt (on G) as well as 1 x red grapes (on H).

After you place the worker and receive ingredients, end your turn by taking the worker's bench from its housing card and placing it on the worker's head as a hat. The worker then remains on its plot until it returns to one of the houses in the fall.

Once all benches have been placed as hats, this phase ends. Then, the second phase begins.

Note: A symbol on the calendar track means that you can't perform label actions during this phase. Label actions are explained in the following section.

Second Phase: Production/Sale

In this phase, you take turns performing one action at a time. The player with the 1 turn order card goes first.

On your turn, perform one of the following actions:

A) Perform 1 production (by playing a wine or cheese card from your hand into an empty cellar slot)

or B) Sell one or more cards from your cellars

or C) Drop out of the phase

A) Perform 1 Production

Perform the following steps in order:

1. Play 1 card from your hand face up into any of your empty cellar slots.
2. Pay its production costs by moving an ingredient marker of the right type from your processing sites to each ingredient space on the card. Every ingredient space must be covered by an ingredient marker. (Note that you may exchange ingredients at a 3-for-1 ratio at any time – see "3-for-1 Trade" below.)
3. After you have paid the card's production costs, immediately perform any one label action free of charge. (For details on label actions, see below.) If it is an action card (recognizable by the action card symbol in the upper left corner), you may instead trigger the card's special action. (For details on special actions, see "The Special Actions of the Action Cards" below.)

Label Actions

Label actions are paid side actions that you can perform at any time and without limit during your turn. However, you can't use them in the first phase of each spring and fall (see above).

Each type of ingredient shows a label action below its processing site. To perform a label action, pay the costs shown before its green arrow (by returning the corresponding ingredient marker(s) to the supply). Then, perform either of the two options after the arrow, which are separated by a slash.

Example of costs: For a label action, you might have to return 2 ingredient markers from your processing sites to the supply: 1 x white grapes + 1 other wine ingredient of your choice (white grapes, red grapes, yeast, or sugar). In return, you may either move your wine indicator 1 step or take 1 wine card. Another label action might require 1 x milk + 1 other cheese ingredient of your choice.

The following options can be found in label actions:

• Advance your wine indicator 1 step. / Advance your cheese indicator 1 step. Move that indicator one step forward on the money track. (How this works is explained in the section "The Money Track" below.)
• Gain 1 wine card. / Gain 1 cheese card. Take 1 card of that type from the card display or from its face-down deck into your hand. If a slot in the card display is empty after that, immediately refill it with a face-up card from the corresponding deck. There is no hand limit.
• Hurry the aging of one of your wine cards. / Hurry the aging of one of your cheese cards. Choose a card of that type in any of your cellar slots. Remove one ingredient marker from any of that card's ingredient spaces and return it to the supply.
• Slow the aging of one of your wine cards. / Slow the aging of one of your cheese cards. Choose a card of that type in any of your cellar slots and add an ingredient marker from the supply to that card's ingredient spaces. If all ingredient spaces are occupied, place the marker next to the others on the card.

Note: Performing a free label action during production (see step 3 above) means using one of the above options without having to pay the costs before the green arrow.

B) Sell Cards From Your Cellars

Perform one or more of the following sales in succession:

a) Sell a finished action card

or b) Sell a finished gourmet pair

or c) Sell a single finished gourmet card

or d) Sell an unfinished card

Depending on whether it is a), b), c), or d), you proceed differently (see below). First, however, you should know what the terms action card, gourmet card, gourmet pair, and finished mean:

Action cards versus gourmet cards

Both cheese and wine cards are divided into action cards and gourmet cards.

Action cards show a symbol in the upper left corner and have their own special action.

Gourmet cards do not have their own special action. Instead they are more valuable when sold as a gourmet pair. A gourmet pair consists of a cheese and wine card that belong to the same dish and, when placed together, depict this dish.

There are four types of dish: Pasta, Quiche, Steak, and Ratatouille.

Finished versus unfinished

A card in your cellar slots is finished if there are no ingredient markers on it. If there is at least one ingredient marker on it, it is considered unfinished.

a) Sell a finished action card

If possible, trigger the card's special action once (for an overview of all special actions, see "The Special Actions of the Action Cards" below). Then place it face down below your gold coin space (if there are already sold cards there, place it on top of them). At the end of the game, this card will be worth as many coins as its gold value shows.

b) Sell a finished gourmet pair

Take the two cards of the gourmet pair (it doesn't matter which of your cellar slots they are in) and place them together in front of you to form their complete dish.

Then, advance your cheese and wine indicators on the money track. Decide which of the two indicators you would like to move forward first and advance it as many steps as are shown for it on the gourmet pair. Then, advance the other indicator as many steps as are shown for it. (How the steps work is explained in the section "The Money Track" below.)

Finally, place both cards face down below your gold coin space. At the end of the game, each of them is worth as many coins as its printed gold value shows.

c) Sell a single finished gourmet card

Place the card face down below your gold coin space without receiving steps or any other bonus for it.

d) Sell an unfinished card

Return all ingredient markers remaining on the card to the supply, then place the card face down below your silver coin space. You do not trigger any actions or receive steps. (If there are already sold cards there, place the card on top of them.) At the end of the game, this card will only be worth as many coins as its printed silver value shows.

Note: You can look at your own sold cards at any time.

C) Drop Out of the Phase

If it is your turn and you do not want to produce or sell anything, you must instead drop out of the phase completely. You may now perform label actions one more time, but you will not get another turn in this phase.

Afterwards, the other player may continue producing and selling until they also drop out of the phase.

Then, proceed to the next phase.

3-for-1 Trade

You may trade ingredient markers 3-for-1 at any time by returning 3 ingredient markers from any of your processing sites to the supply and placing 1 ingredient marker from there onto any of your processing sites.

The Money Track

On the money track, each player has a cheese indicator and a wine indicator. These can advance on the track via certain actions.

At the end of the game, each indicator is worth as many coins as is shown on the space it occupies.

All indicators begin on the shared starting space. When you get steps for an indicator for the first time, its first step goes along the short green wooden arrow to the track. When advancing, any space on the track already occupied by an indicator (regardless of who it belongs to) is skipped. This means that for each step you get, you move your indicator to the next free space on the money track.

Example: A player gets 2 steps for their cheese indicator. Its first step goes from the starting space to the free 0 space on the money track, and the second step goes to the free 1 space.

If your indicator lands on or passes a bonus space with an ingredient marker on it, take that marker as a bonus and place it onto any of your processing sites.

If your indicator reaches the 20 space, its next step goes along the long green lap arrow back to the 2 space, then it continues its lap. To mark that it has reached 20, place an ingredient marker from the supply onto your corresponding lap space next to the starting space. (If the indicator moves past 20 again, add another ingredient marker to that lap space.)

Example: A cheese indicator is on the 19 space and gets 2 steps. Its first step goes to the 20 space and the second goes along the lap arrow to the free 2 space (since the first 2 space is occupied). Then, an ingredient marker is placed from the supply onto the player's cheese lap space.

The Special Actions of the Action Cards

Each action card has its own special action that can be triggered in certain situations (e.g., when you produce or sell the card). The special actions are as follows:

Starter cultures

Return the 2 ingredient markers of the shown types to the supply, then advance your corresponding indicator 4 steps on the money track. You may do this once each time the action is triggered.

Washing (periodically rubbing the cheese rind with brandy)

For each face-up cheese card in your cellar slots (including this card), advance your wine indicator 1 step on the money track.

For each face-up gourmet cheese card in your cellar slots, either advance your wine indicator 2 steps or your cheese indicator 1 step on the money track (choose separately for each gourmet card).

Example: For the special action of card A, you would get 4 steps with your wine indicator on the money track (1 each for cheese cards A, B, C, and D). With the special action of card B, you could advance your wine indicator 4 steps OR your cheese indicator 2 steps OR you could advance your wine indicator 2 steps and your cheese indicator 1 step (in any order) because you have 2 gourmet cheese cards (C+D).

Distillation (making brandy for washing)

For each face-up wine card in your cellar slots (including this card), advance your cheese indicator 1 step on the money track.

For each face-up gourmet wine card in your cellar slots, either advance your cheese indicator 2 steps or your wine indicator 1 step on the money track (choose separately for each gourmet card).

Helper

Trigger the action of another face-up action card in your cellar slots once.

Market day

For each ingredient shown, place 1 ingredient marker from the supply onto your processing site of that type.

Alternatively, some market day cards let you place 1 ingredient marker from the supply onto your processing site for any cheese ingredient, or 1 ingredient marker from the supply onto your processing site for any wine ingredient.

Third Phase: Storage

In this phase, ingredient markers remaining on processing sites must be stored. However, you have only a few storage spaces: 2 each for salt and sugar, and 1 each for yeast and cultures. Grapes and milk cannot be stored.

The player who has the turn order card with the 1 must store first by moving their ingredient markers to their matching storage spaces. Ingredients they cannot or do not want to store may be used in other ways (e.g., through the 3-for-1 trade and label actions). Any ingredient markers remaining on their processing sites that cannot be stored now expire and must be returned to the supply.

The other player then stores in the same way.

After storage is complete, the player with more ingredient markers in their storage spaces takes the turn order card with the 1 and the other player takes the turn order card with the 2. If tied, swap your turn order cards.

You can still use your stored ingredients normally.

Summer

First Phase: Aging

In this phase, all cards in your cellar slots age exactly twice. This means you must remove exactly 2 ingredient markers from each of your cards there and return them to the supply. If you cannot remove 2 markers from a card because there aren't enough on it (and you can't or don't want to do anything about it with label actions), then it becomes overripe – you must immediately force-sell it by placing it face down below your silver coin space.

You can carry this phase out simultaneously. If it looks like the order will matter, the player with the 1 turn order card performs the aging first.

Second Phase: Trigger Special Actions

Beginning with the player who has the turn order card with the 1, each player does the following:

You may now trigger the special action of each face-up action card in your cellar slots once, in any order.

Fall

First Phase: Return Workers From Plots

In this phase, you collect ingredients again with the help of the workers, in a similar way to the first phase of spring. The difference is that the workers are not distributed from their houses to the plots, but rather returned from the plots to the houses. However, the ingredients are generated in the same way: the chosen worker generates ingredients according to the plot pattern of the chosen housing card, before it is taken off its plot and placed onto the house.

You take your turns – just as in the first phase of spring – in the order determined by the turn order cards: the player with the 1 turn order card starts; the player with the 2 turn order card takes the second and third turns, and so on.

Again, workers of the same color form a pair and one must always be "chosen" directly after the other. This means that if you are taking an odd-numbered turn, you may choose any worker from the plot grid and place its hat as a bench on one of your own unoccupied houses, thus activating its pattern and generating ingredients. After doing so, take the worker from the plot grid and place it onto its bench. Your opponent then has no choice in their next turn and must "choose" the worker of the same color from the plot grid and place its hat as a bench on one of their own unoccupied houses. Then they generate ingredients and place the worker from the plot grid onto the bench.

This continues until the last worker has been taken from the plot grid and placed on its bench. The phase then ends.

Example: One player chooses the red worker on plot A and decides to place its hat as a bench on their own house on Work Together card 1. This generates 2 x red grapes (on A) and 1 x white grapes (on B). They then move the worker from plot A to the bench.

The other player is next and must "choose" the red worker on plot B. They decide to place its hat on their own house on Toil Alone card 2. This produces 1 x white grapes (on B), 1 x milk (on C), and 1 x yeast or culture (on D). They then move the worker from plot B to its bench on Toil Alone card 2.

Second and Third Phases

The second and third phases of fall are identical to the second and third phases of spring (Production/Sale and Storage, respectively).

Winter

Unlike the other seasons, the phases of the first winter differ from those of the second winter, since the game ends with the second winter.

First Winter

The first phase is the same as the first phase of summer, "Aging."

In the second phase, new workers arrive: On the housing cards, two houses are still empty: one on each player's side. Take the two workers from the calendar track and place one along with its bench onto each empty house.

Second Winter

The first phase is the same as the first phase of summer, "Aging." However, your cards now age three times instead of twice. This means you must remove exactly 3 ingredient markers of your choice from each card in your cellar slots and return them to the supply.

In the second phase, you sell all remaining cards from your cellar slots (according to the rules on selling cards from your cellars). Whoever has the 1 turn order card goes first.

The third phase represents the end of the game, in which you work out who has won (see below).

The Cellar Closed Card

You have a Cellar Closed card in one of your cellar slots. You may remove this card at any time during your turn and return it to the box by paying the removal costs. From then on, you can use this cellar slot like any other. If you don't need an additional slot, leave the card in the slot until the end of the game.

Costs for removal:

Return 4 ingredient markers of your choice from your processing sites to the supply

OR

move your wine OR cheese indicator 4 steps back on the money track. As with moving forward, occupied spaces are skipped (and you could return to the large starting space with the final step). However, you are not allowed to move an indicator back over the lap arrow.

End of the Game

As soon as the phase marker is moved to the third phase of the second winter, the game ends and you work out the score. Feel free to use a scoring sheet for this.

Scoring

Each player works out their final score using a scoring sheet, which contains spaces A through K. Proceed with your scoring as follows:

A and B

Reveal all cards below your gold coin space. Add up the gold values of the cheese cards there and enter the sum in space A. Then add up the gold values of the wine cards there and enter the sum in space B.

C and D

Reveal all cards below your silver coin space. Add up the silver values of the cheese cards there and enter the sum in space C. Then add up the silver values of the wine cards there and enter the sum in space D.

E and F

In space E, enter the value on your cheese indicator's space (+20 per ingredient marker on the corresponding lap space). In space F, enter the value on your wine indicator's space (+20 per ingredient marker on the corresponding lap space).

G and H

Finally, collect all gourmet pairs you now have (regardless of which coin space their cards were below). For each pair, add one coin to each type of good. This means you enter how many pairs you have in both space G and space H.

The sum of spaces A, C, E, and G is your total result for the cheese good type (space I). The sum of spaces B, D, F, and H gives your total result for the wine good type (space J). The lower of these two is your final score, which you enter in space K.

The player with the higher final score wins. If tied, the player with the higher total result for their other type of good wins. If still tied, the player with the 1 turn order card wins.