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Terroir is a single player,  3-D tile based wine-making tycoon game that recently left Early Access on September 20, 2017.

In Terroir, players manage a vineyard with options to grow different grape varietals, sell wine to merchants, and grow the estate. During the game, players will also have to deal with the unpredictable weather that rivals France’s Bordeaux region’s climate, Chance & Circumstance (Terroir’s mission and random event mystery-box system unlocked with 5 Star wine ratings), pests, fungal rot on vines, and over exposure. There’s also the option to present the wine made into the CIVO wine awards every 4 years in game. Win the award and earn 3 renown plus 10% addition to the price of the wine.

Grapes can be harvested between the in-game months of September and November. If the grapes are not harvested in November, the grapes will no longer be harvestable. After harvesting the grapes, players start the in-game wine making process that impacts the acidity, sweetness, tannins, and body of the wine. The choices made during the crushing, fermentation, pressing, and aging steps will affect the wine’s overall rating. More options for each step of the process become unlockable as the estate level is raised. The more balanced the values are, the better the wine will sell and rate higher with wine tasters. Here are some of the explanations the game provides for each step of the process:

Crushing: Crush your freshly harvest grapes to create a semi-solid grape juice known as “must”. Different methods of crushing will lead to different effects on your wine’s tannin levels and will take different amounts of time to complete.

Fermentation – Every two weeks of fermentation decreases sweetness by 1.

Pressing – For every 10% of pressed juice, your acidity increases by 1. Before your wine can be aged, you need to press the must to obtain the fermented juices. Use the slider to determine the ratio between pressed and free run juice. More pressed juice means higher acidity.

Ageing – Ageing softens a wine’s tannins and acidity giving a smoother and more balanced taste.

Once the wine making process is completed, players can bottle and package the wine and facilitate a wine tasting to earn ratings for a wine. Once a wine is rated, the wine can be priced and sold to merchants for profit.

After every year of quality wine production and well-rated wine tastings, the estate’s renown level rises. Every rise in renown allows the player to charge more money per bottle. Players can purchase more equipment, hire workers, purchase land, plus upgrade and decorate the estate with earnings from wine sales.

Terroir has three difficulty levels; Easy, Standard, and Challenging. Easy difficulty starts with a budget of $70,000 and has a 30% penalty to the final score. Standard difficulty starts with a $35,000 budget and no final score penalty or bonus. Challenging difficulty starts with a $23,000 budget and 30% bonus to final score. Pests, rot, and overexposure are also increased or decreased depending on the game difficulty selected. At the time of writing, Terroir was played on Standard difficulty. Terroir did not seem too difficult and was far from rage inducing (As it should be! Who wants to rage at wine?!).  Controls are simple and intuitive. The in-game instructional handbook is very through and descriptions for in-game items and processes are detailed and informative.

There was a possible flaw in the game that appeared to be a possible typo. For example, one of the tips for a wine created was “Tip: The acidity level was too hight”. After research I still was unable to determine if that was a typo, a wine term, or another culture’s reference to acidity. It caught me off guard but does not have an impact on the game.

Terroir is a fascinating game that is both entertaining to play and a fun way to learn more about the winemaking process. This game certainly made me start researching and learning more about the winemaking process. I recommend this game to anyone who likes wine, tycoon games, casual games, or games. And if you get a request from the mayor for a tour of the estate, don’t stand him up. It’s not a good look. 😉