Viticulture: Essential Edition – Build Your Own Vineyard in Tuscany

Become a winemaker in the rolling hills of pre-modern Tuscany with Viticulture: Essential Edition, the acclaimed competitive worker-placement board game from Stonemaier Games.

Starting with a modest vineyard, a few fields, three workers and an old cellar, you'll need to carefully develop your estate, plant vines, harvest grapes, produce wine and fulfil valuable wine orders.

With 1–6 players, games lasting around 45–90 minutes, and a dedicated solo mode, Viticulture: Essential Edition offers a rich strategic experience that scales from solo play through to larger competitive vineyard-building games.

What Is Viticulture: Essential Edition?

Viticulture: Essential Edition is a strategic worker-placement game set in Tuscany, where each player manages their own vineyard and winery.

The game combines seasonal worker placement with engine building, resource management and card-driven opportunities. Summer and winter have different spaces and priorities, so deciding when and where to send your workers is crucial.

Build structures, plant vines, harvest grapes, make wine and fulfil orders to earn victory points. Visitor cards can provide unexpected advantages, while your limited workers mean you'll constantly need to prioritise your plans.

The Essential Edition incorporates selected improvements and content from the Tuscany system, including revised visitor cards, Mama & Papa cards, Field cards and the Automa solo system.

How to Play

Each player begins with a small vineyard and a limited number of workers.

The game is played across four seasons, with different worker-placement opportunities available throughout the year. In summer, you might build structures, plant vines or invite visitors. In winter, you'll harvest grapes, make wine and fulfil wine orders.

Workers are placed onto action spaces, with competition for the most useful locations. Being first to a space can provide a valuable advantage, but committing a worker early may prevent you from using it somewhere else later.

As your vineyard develops, you'll be able to produce increasingly valuable wines and complete more demanding orders.

The game ends when a player reaches the required victory-point threshold, with the winery having the most victory points becoming the winner.

Why You'll Love It

• Build your own vineyard – Develop fields, structures, vines and wine production.

• Classic worker placement – Every worker placement matters.

• Four distinct seasons – Summer and winter offer different opportunities.

• Strategic card play – Use visitors, vines, wine orders and other cards to shape your strategy.

• Race for valuable spaces – Getting your worker somewhere first can make all the difference.

• Build an engine – Improve your vineyard so it becomes increasingly productive.

• Solo mode included – Play against the Automa system when you're on your own.

• 1–6 players – Enjoy it solo, head-to-head or with a larger group.

• Beautiful components – Includes custom wooden workers, grape and wine tokens and vineyard pieces.

• Expand your winery – Compatible with the Viticulture expansion range, including Tuscany Essential Edition, Bordeaux and World.

Who Is It For?

Viticulture: Essential Edition is ideal for players who enjoy worker-placement games, engine building, resource management and strategic Eurogames.

It's a particularly good choice if you enjoy games where your early decisions gradually build towards a stronger engine, while limited action spaces force you to compete with other players.

The included solo system also makes it an excellent option for players who want a substantial strategy game that doesn't require a regular gaming group.

Build Your Vineyard

Your vineyard starts small, but there are plenty of ways to develop it.

Plant Vines

Choose which grape varieties to plant in your fields. Different vines can provide different combinations of grapes, giving you options when producing wine and completing orders.

Harvest Grapes

Harvest your fields at the right time to build up your grape supply. Planning ahead is important, as wine orders require specific combinations of grapes and wine values.

Make Wine

Turn your harvested grapes into wine and store it in your cellar. Better facilities allow you to produce and store more valuable wines.

Fulfil Wine Orders

Wine orders are one of the key routes to victory points. Completing them requires careful planning, as you'll need the right grapes, wine and production capacity.

Invite Visitors

Summer and winter visitor cards can provide special abilities and alternative ways to improve your vineyard. Knowing when to use them can turn a good turn into a great one.

Main Mechanics

Worker Placement
Place your workers onto action spaces to develop your vineyard, with competition for the best locations.

Seasonal Planning
Summer and winter provide different actions, encouraging you to plan across the entire year.

Engine Building
Invest in your vineyard so that your winery becomes more productive as the game progresses.

Resource Management
Balance grapes, wine, money, workers, fields and structures while deciding which opportunities are worth pursuing.

Hand Management
Vine, visitor and wine-order cards give you strategic options, but you'll need to choose when to use them.

Variable Player Decisions
Each vineyard develops differently, allowing players to pursue different routes towards victory.

Solo Automa Mode
The Essential Edition includes Automa cards and a multiplayer/solo rulebook for dedicated solo play.

Games Like Viticulture: Essential Edition

If you enjoy Viticulture, you may also like:

• Wingspan – Another Stonemaier strategy game combining engine building with beautiful card-driven gameplay.

• Scythe – A deeper strategic Eurogame with resource management, development and area control.

• Tapestry – Build a civilisation through technological and cultural development.

• Lords of Waterdeep – Worker placement with quests, resources and competing action spaces.

• Catan – Resource management and trading with a strong competitive focus.

• Dune: Imperium – Worker placement combined with deck building and strategic conflict.

• Evergreen – Build an increasingly efficient ecosystem through careful spatial and resource decisions.

Game Information

Feature	Details
Game	Viticulture: Essential Edition
Publisher	Stonemaier Games
Players	1–6
Playing Time	45–90 minutes
Age	13+
Game Type	Worker Placement / Strategy / Engine Building
Theme	Vineyard / Wine Making / Tuscany
Designers	Jamey Stegmaier & Alan Stone
Artists	Beth Sobel, Jacqui Davis & David Montgomery
Release	2015
UK RRP	£59.99
SKU	GTGSTM105
Barcode / EAN	748252980618
Language	English

The current Stonemaier Games edition is listed for 1–6 players, with a 45–90 minute playing time and a dedicated solo/multiplayer rulebook. The current UK retail listing gives GTGSTM105 as the product code and an RRP of £59.99.

What's Included?

The Essential Edition contains a substantial collection of cards and custom components:

• 1 Game Board

• 6 Vineyard Mats

• 42 Vine Cards

• 36 Wine Order Cards

• 38 Summer Visitor Cards

• 38 Winter Visitor Cards

• 18 Field Cards

• 24 Automa Cards

• 36 Mama & Papa / pink and blue cards

• 30 Wooden Worker Meeples

• 6 Wooden Grande Worker Meeples

• 48 Glass Grape and Wine Tokens

• 6 Wooden Wake-Up Tokens

• 6 Wooden Victory Point Tokens

• 6 Wooden Residual Payment Tokens

• 48 Wooden Structure Tokens

• 72 Punchboard Lira Coins

• 1 First-Player Token

• 6 Vineyard Mats

• 1 Rulebook covering multiplayer and solo play

In total, the current Stonemaier listing specifies 232 illustrated cards and 86 custom wooden tokens, alongside the board, vineyard mats, coins and other components.

FAQ

Is Viticulture: Essential Edition a standalone game?

Yes. Viticulture: Essential Edition is a complete standalone game and does not require any expansion to play.

How many people can play Viticulture?

Viticulture supports 1–6 players. The Essential Edition includes a dedicated solo system as well as multiplayer rules.

How long does Viticulture take to play?

A typical game takes around 45–90 minutes, depending on player count and experience.

What age is Viticulture suitable for?

The listed recommended age is 13+.

Is Viticulture good for solo play?

Yes. The Essential Edition includes Automa cards and solo rules, allowing you to play a dedicated solo version of the game.

Can I expand Viticulture Essential Edition?

Yes. The game has a range of expansions, including Tuscany Essential Edition, Bordeaux, Moor Visitors, Visit from the Rhine Valley and Viticulture World. Tuscany adds an extended board, structures and special workers, while Viticulture World introduces cooperative gameplay.

Is Viticulture a complicated game?

Viticulture sits in the medium-weight strategy game category. Its core worker-placement rules are straightforward to learn, while the vineyard development, card combinations and seasonal planning provide considerable strategic depth.

Buy Viticulture: Essential Edition

Build your vineyard from the ground up and compete to create Tuscany's most successful winery.

With worker placement, engine building, wine production, visitor cards and a dedicated solo mode, Viticulture: Essential Edition offers plenty of strategic depth while remaining approachable enough to bring to a regular gaming table.

Add Viticulture: Essential Edition by Stonemaier Games to your collection from Roll The Dice Cornwall.