--- product_id: 254203880 title: "Viticulture: Essential Ed" brand: "stonemaier games" price: "£66.72" currency: GBP in_stock: true reviews_count: 5 url: https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/254203880-viticulture-essential-ed store_origin: GB region: United Kingdom --- # Worker placement vineyard strategy Beautifully illustrated components Solo Automa AI opponent Viticulture: Essential Ed **Brand:** stonemaier games **Price:** £66.72 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Summary > 🍷 Cultivate your vineyard empire—because the best wines and wins are reserved for the savvy few. ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Viticulture: Essential Ed by stonemaier games - **How much does it cost?** £66.72 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co.uk](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/254203880-viticulture-essential-ed) ## Best For - stonemaier games enthusiasts ## Why This Product - Trusted stonemaier games brand quality - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Key Features - • **Solo Mode with Automa:** Challenge yourself against an intelligent AI opponent for a fulfilling single-player experience anytime. - • **Dynamic Seasonal Gameplay:** Navigate unique summer and winter tasks with competitive worker placement for maximum efficiency. - • **Engage with Unique Visitors:** Leverage variable visitor cards that offer powerful, game-changing bonuses and strategic options. - • **Master the Art of Winemaking:** Strategically plant, harvest, and age grapes to craft the most valuable wines in Tuscany. - • **Complete & Polished Essential Edition:** Includes base game plus mini expansions and refined rules for a seamless, immersive experience. ## Overview Viticulture: Essential Edition is a mid-weight, worker placement board game where players build and manage a Tuscan vineyard. Featuring seasonal tasks, variable visitor cards, and a solo Automa mode, it offers a rich strategic experience with beautifully illustrated components. This edition bundles the base game with mini expansions and updated rules, delivering a polished, thematic journey into winemaking for 1-6 players in about 90 minutes. ## Description Buy Viticulture: Essential Ed online on desertcart.ae at best prices. ✓ Fast and free shipping ✓ free returns ✓ cash on delivery available on eligible purchase. Review: Fantastic Rulebook. Terms explained on back cover.These points are often overlooked but very important. Also: Art work beautiful. Solid game, scales well w/player count. You need to plan ahead and it really is a decent game, the best in years. This edition is the best, and it is finally a worker placement game that I actually like. I played the tuscany + essential and did not like that very much. It feels "finished", instead of others that feel incomplete and are shouting for expansions. Compared to other wine board games it is simpler than Vinhos and less cruel than grand cru. It actually teaches how wine is produced. For kids however it is not very spectacular, would play it with intelligent adults, that may or may not like wine. Oh and did I mention you can play it solo against the AI of the game? Review: Viticulture is an excellent mid-weight euro game that sits firmly in the Worker Placement genre. I picked this up to play 2 player games with my wife and am happy to say that we are both very pleased with the game after 4 plays and will be playing it a lot more incorporating the Tuscany essential edition expansion. The components and presentation of the game is beautiful. The board depicts various building spaces to send your workers to obtain various resources (money, cards, points), with spots for the various card decks at the top and a point track at the bottom. The action spaces themselves are basically divided in half with summer actions (mostly for building up) and winter actions (scoring points and creating wine). Each player has an individual playerboard that represents their vineyard with an assortment of different building and worker meeples that they can use for upgrading their vineyard and executing actions. The game feels very well executed at the 2 player level. Each action only has 1 space available (more with more than 2 players) but each player has one "grande" (a bigger worker meeple) that can go to an action space thats occupied. The game involves the use of a lot of cards that represent either types of wine grapes / summer visitors / winter visitors and order cards. There is a flow to the game, where grapes must be planted, then harvested, then made into wine. At the end of each round, grapes and wine age, and you can plan ahead to fulfill an order when your grapes/wine have properly aged. Money is tight, and each player will not be able to do everything in a game. There is also a lot of variability added from the cards. Most visitor cards will offer up two options where players can capitalize by trading resources for points or money. We've noticed that its possible to take a card-focused strategy by building a cottage and then using cards as much as possible throughout the game. Turn order is also very well done in this game, where players can choose something they really need (an extra vine card, coin, point) and it will determine the order that they get to take their turn in. The last point is that the game does not have a set number of rounds, it is more a race to see who can get the first to 20 points which makes the game very exciting as it feels very neck and neck up to the end to see who can squeeze out the couple last points through efficiency. If you enjoy other worker placement games (Stone Age, Agricola, Lords of Waterdeep), Viticulture will likely be right up your alley. Neither my wife or I are wine connoisseurs, but that does not diminish our enjoyment of this game at all. In fact, we've concluded that this game will ultimately replace Agricola for us as there is not nearly as much stress involved during the course of the game. The game still has a good amount of scarcity for actions where one cannot do everything they want to, it is just not as pronounced. ## Features - BUILD YOUR VINEYARD: Create the most prosperous winery in Italy from the Tuscan vineyard you’ve inherited in this worker placement wine-making game - ASSIGN TASKS TO YOUR WORKERS: Every season is different on a vineyard, so the workers have different tasks they can take care of in the summer and winter. There's competition over those tasks, and often the first worker to get to the job has an advantage over subsequent workers. - GOALS: Using those workers and visitors, the vineyard owners can expand their vineyards by building structures, planting vines, and filling wine orders, working towards the goal of running the most successful winery in Tuscany. - HIGHLY VARIABLE: Visitors are willing to help out around the vineyard when they visit as long as you assign a worker to take care of them. Their visits (in the form of cards) are brief but can be very helpful. - BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED AND ILLUSTRATED: Designed by Jamey Stegmaier (Scythe) and Alan Stone (Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia). Illustrated by Jacqui Davis (Cubitos), David Montgomery, and Beth Sobel (Wingspan). - ESSENTIAL EDITION: Includes the base game of Viticulture along with a few mini expansions like Mamas & Papas, Fields, expanded and revised Visitors, Automa cards, and a few minor rule changes from the original version. - THEMATICALLY DESIGNED MECHANISMS: As each year turns, your wine gains value as it ages. Use irrigation and trellises to plant grapes in your fields, and turn those grapes into wine. - SOLO PLAY: Features an Automa to play against in a single player game for a fun solitaire experience. The Automa simulates an opponent for you to compete against, while your game as a player remains the same. On the Automa’s turn, flip a card to see what action it takes. - GIFTS: This is a great gift for the board game lover in your life. Fun for adults, couples, board gamers, and wine lovers. - PUBLISHED BY STONEMAIER: Stonemaier is a tabletop game publisher based in St. Louis and distributed worldwide. Stonemaier's brands include Viticulture, Euphoria, Between Two Cities, Scythe, Charterstone, My Little Scythe, Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Wingspan, Tapestry, Pendulum, Red Rising, Rolling Realms, Libertalia, Smitten, Expeditions, Apiary, and Wyrmspan. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | ASIN | B018GRSLK4 | | Age Range Description | 156 months to 9600 months | | Are Batteries Required | No | | Best Sellers Rank | #54,132 in Toys ( See Top 100 in Toys ) #1,996 in Board Games | | Brand Name | Stonemaier Games | | CPSIA Cautionary Statement | Choking Hazard - Small Parts, No Warning Applicable | | Color | Multi-colored | | Customer Package Type | Standard Packaging | | Customer Reviews | 4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars (2,208) | | Edition | Essential Edition | | Educational Objective | Team Building Skills | | Estimated Playing Time | 90 Minutes | | Genre | ['Strategy', 'City Building', 'Engine Building'] | | Global Trade Identification Number | 00748252980618 | | Included Components | Viticulture: Essential Edition | | Is Assembly Required | No | | Item Dimensions | 22 x 10 x 27 centimeters | | Item Dimensions L x W | 27L x 22W centimeters | | Item Part Number | IMPSTM105 | | Item Type Name | board game | | Item Weight | 1.81 kg | | Language | English | | Manufacturer | Stonemaeir Games | | Manufacturer Maximum Age (MONTHS) | 1200.0 | | Manufacturer Minimum Age (MONTHS) | 168.0 | | Manufacturer Part Number | STM105 | | Material Type | Cardboard Cardstock Wood | | Minimum Age Recomendation | 156 | | Model Number | STM105 | | Number of Items | 1 | | Number of Players | 1-6 | | Operation Mode | Manual | | Power Source | manual | | Set Name | Viticulture Essential Edition | | Size | 10 x 22 x 27 cm | | Supported Battery Types | No batteries required | | Theme | Winemaking | | UPC | 748252980618 | | Unit Count | 1 Count | ## Product Details - **Brand:** Stonemaier Games - **Genre:** ['Strategy', 'City Building', 'Engine Building'] - **Material:** Cardboard Cardstock Wood - **Number of players:** 1-6 - **Theme:** Winemaking ## Images ![Viticulture: Essential Ed - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71oyi4jIh9L.jpg) ## Available Options This product comes in different **Style** options. ## Questions & Answers **Q: Is there a one player option?** A: As has been answered, there absolutely is a one-player variant, and I just wanted to add my piece to this: it is one of the best solo-variants I've ever seen in a game. The designer of the variant is on Board Game Geek and it went through some amazing playtesting - the variant is so simple, yet it seems like it knows what we're thinking or wanting to do. It's got a few levels of difficulty as well, and the solo variant has been lovingly designed and honed by many many fans of Viticulture. I cannot recommend this game highly enough. One caveat - if you do purchase it, I would recommend purchasing a set of metal coins - I did not get the ones done by Stonemaier, but they are available at Meeplesource. I bought mine on Amazon and they were made for the game Brass (by Eagle Gryphon). Totally completely adds to the fun of this game! **Q: What types of tokens are needed for this game? ie. gold, stone, food, gems, wood etc? Would the Stonemaier token be useful or a waste?** A: Here’s what we do. We buy little jewelry gems at HobbyLobby….we buy Ruby red for the red wine, white for the whites, there’s a blush color , and then we buy a sparkly one for the champagne. We use a clear disc for the money marker. We use miniature wine bottles for the player scores. We also use silicon cupcake liners to hold game pieces. We use the cupcake liners for all sorts of games. Blings it all out at a reasonable price. We also used balsa wood to make crates for the cards. This is a frequent game at our house., so worth the effort. Great game for newer players. A bit light for my tastes, but we are gamers. **Q: Does this version come with the metal coins?** A: No, this version comes with cardboard coins. The Tuscany Deluxe expansion is the one that comes with the metal coins. **Q: Is this compatible with Tuscany Expansion (2nd Edition)?** A: Yes, 2nd ed Tuscany (AKA Tuscany essential edition) was created to work best with viticulture essential ed ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review *by K***X on 21 May 2017* Fantastic Rulebook. Terms explained on back cover.These points are often overlooked but very important. Also: Art work beautiful. Solid game, scales well w/player count. You need to plan ahead and it really is a decent game, the best in years. This edition is the best, and it is finally a worker placement game that I actually like. I played the tuscany + essential and did not like that very much. It feels "finished", instead of others that feel incomplete and are shouting for expansions. Compared to other wine board games it is simpler than Vinhos and less cruel than grand cru. It actually teaches how wine is produced. For kids however it is not very spectacular, would play it with intelligent adults, that may or may not like wine. Oh and did I mention you can play it solo against the AI of the game? ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review *by R***N on 11 May 2017* Viticulture is an excellent mid-weight euro game that sits firmly in the Worker Placement genre. I picked this up to play 2 player games with my wife and am happy to say that we are both very pleased with the game after 4 plays and will be playing it a lot more incorporating the Tuscany essential edition expansion. The components and presentation of the game is beautiful. The board depicts various building spaces to send your workers to obtain various resources (money, cards, points), with spots for the various card decks at the top and a point track at the bottom. The action spaces themselves are basically divided in half with summer actions (mostly for building up) and winter actions (scoring points and creating wine). Each player has an individual playerboard that represents their vineyard with an assortment of different building and worker meeples that they can use for upgrading their vineyard and executing actions. The game feels very well executed at the 2 player level. Each action only has 1 space available (more with more than 2 players) but each player has one "grande" (a bigger worker meeple) that can go to an action space thats occupied. The game involves the use of a lot of cards that represent either types of wine grapes / summer visitors / winter visitors and order cards. There is a flow to the game, where grapes must be planted, then harvested, then made into wine. At the end of each round, grapes and wine age, and you can plan ahead to fulfill an order when your grapes/wine have properly aged. Money is tight, and each player will not be able to do everything in a game. There is also a lot of variability added from the cards. Most visitor cards will offer up two options where players can capitalize by trading resources for points or money. We've noticed that its possible to take a card-focused strategy by building a cottage and then using cards as much as possible throughout the game. Turn order is also very well done in this game, where players can choose something they really need (an extra vine card, coin, point) and it will determine the order that they get to take their turn in. The last point is that the game does not have a set number of rounds, it is more a race to see who can get the first to 20 points which makes the game very exciting as it feels very neck and neck up to the end to see who can squeeze out the couple last points through efficiency. If you enjoy other worker placement games (Stone Age, Agricola, Lords of Waterdeep), Viticulture will likely be right up your alley. Neither my wife or I are wine connoisseurs, but that does not diminish our enjoyment of this game at all. In fact, we've concluded that this game will ultimately replace Agricola for us as there is not nearly as much stress involved during the course of the game. The game still has a good amount of scarcity for actions where one cannot do everything they want to, it is just not as pronounced. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review *by R***D on 16 October 2025* Lovely production, good worker placement mechanics and very accesible. Highly recommended for medium-lightweight game. ## Frequently Bought Together - Stonemaier Games: Viticulture Essential Edition (Base Game) | Create The Most Prosperous Tuscan Vineyard | Wine Themed Strategy Board Game for Adults and Family | 1-6 Players, 90 Mins, Ages 14+ - Stonemaier Games Viticulture: Tuscany Expansion Essential Edition, 1-6 Players, Ages 14+, 150 Mins, New Board, Cards, Workers --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/254203880-viticulture-essential-ed](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/254203880-viticulture-essential-ed) --- *Product available on Desertcart United Kingdom* *Store origin: GB* *Last updated: 2026-05-04*