dnasquesttoblack3000 wrote:is this game more of an earthy old world type game, or a big fruitbomb new world cdrom?

nice

should we open the box and immediately play, or let it decant for an hour?

madcran wrote:I tweeted this to Gary V, I wonder if he would just own this game. I'm on the fence myself, I don't now much if anything about wine so I bet I would I am an un-original person tremendously. But maybe I would learn some things if I bought the game.

Dear madcran,

Thanks for your comments, and I do hope you enjoy the game. Upon release, I sent a copy to Gary...his reply: "Super Rad Barry, sure zap it over, nice work!"
You can play an on-line sample of the 2007 version at worldwinechallenge.com

All the best,
BW

kschmohl wrote:I never post typically but I had to for this... I mean come on, $5 to ship a CD... highway robbery!

i have NO idea, but i assume its because

a. the woots have pretty standard shipping costs, regardless of the item. so 5 bucks for a bigscreen tv, 5 bucks for a leakfrog. whatever.

b. sometimes they lose money on the $5 charge, sometimes they make money. buying 18 bottles of wine surely costs them more than 5 bucks to ship. buying a cd surely costs them less. i assume it all evens out for them. and for you, too, if you buy enough

dnasquesttoblack3000 wrote:i have NO idea, but i assume its because

a. the woots have pretty standard shipping costs, regardless of the item. so 5 bucks for a bigscreen tv, 5 bucks for a leakfrog. whatever.

b. sometimes they lose money on the $5 charge, sometimes they make money. buying 18 bottles of wine surely costs them more than 5 bucks to ship. buying a cd surely costs them less. i assume it all evens out for them. and for you, too, if you buy enough

It's also part of the calculated cost of the product -- either shipping built into the product, or product cost built into the $5.

Hello everyone...BW here.
Thanks for all your comments regarding the WWC. Being a wine geek for most of my life and helping people pass wine certification programs, I wanted to create something fun and challenging. Do not bother buying the first version; the 2007 version is much better. Thanks to everyone who bought one! If you want a little taste of the WWC, you can play an on-line version of the "Masters Level" at worldwinechallenge.com. You can post your score....we have Somms all over the world playing it. Keep in mind, each level and all questions are randomized from a larger bank of questions, so each time you play you will get different and new questions. I hope you have fun with it.
Cheers,
Barry Wiss

kschmohl wrote:I never post typically but I had to for this... I mean come on, $5 to ship a CD... highway robbery!

Sometimes you get the woot, sometimes the woot gets you!

I've purchased junk from woot for 99cents that was 5 bucks to ship!

;)

bwiss wrote:Hello everyone...BW here.
Thanks for all your comments regarding the WWC. Being a wine geek for most of my life and helping people pass wine certification programs, I wanted create something fun and challenging. Do not bother buying the first version; the 2007 version is much better. Thanks to everyone who bought one! If you want a little taste of the WWC, you can play an on-line version of the "Masters Level" at worldwinechallenge.com. You can post your score....we have Somms all over the world playing it. Keep in mind, each level and all questions are randomized from a larger bank of questions, so each time you play you will get different and new questions. I hope you have fun with it.
Cheers,
Barry Wiss

Barry,

How did you accumulate all the information necassary for an undertaking this large? Is there some huge grape encyclopedia out there we dont' know about?

bhodilee wrote:Is there some huge grape encyclopedia out there we dont' know about?

You probably know about it... but: LINK

From the bottom of my credit card thank you woot, thank you.

I needed a juice break.

bhodilee wrote:Barry,

How did you accumulate all the information necassary for an undertaking this large? Is there some huge grape encyclopedia out there we dont' know about?

It took a long time, over two years of writing questions and traveling. I have been to almost every major wine region in the world....headed to Chianti next week. I am also an avid collector of wine books. Some of my favorites are The Oxford Companion to Wine and "Exploring Wine" -- two of the must-haves for wine geeks.

bwiss wrote:It took a long time, over two years of writing questions and traveling. I have been to almost every major wine region in the world....headed to Chianti next week. I am also an avid collector of wine books. Some of my favorites are The Oxford Companion to Wine and "Exploring Wine" -- two of the must-haves for wine geeks.

Follow up questions: do you need a porter? I will happily carry your bags if you take me with

Serious follow up question(unless of course you need a porter): What has been your favorite region so far? The and why part of that is implied also ;)

man I wasted 5 minutes of my life trying the sample online version on your site

might as well have been in Chinese, the highest level questions are ridiculous!

looks very high quality though, kudos to a nice product

brockb wrote:You probably know about it... but: LINK

Amazon Links for all books so far mentioned

Oxford guide
Exploring Wine Amazon had two of these, I figured it was the CIA one

tkastorff wrote:man I wasted 5 minutes of my life trying the sample online version on your site

might as well have been in Chinese, the highest level questions are ridiculous!

looks very high quality though, kudos to a nice product

I got four out of ten, 3 blind guesses.

bhodilee wrote:Follow up questions: do you need a porter? I will happily carry your bags if you take me with

Serious follow up question(unless of course you need a porter): What has been your favorite region so far? The and why part of that is implied also ;)

Thanks for the offer....I travel very light, but I will keep you in mind. As far as a favorite wine region, that is difficult but if I had to narrow it down, I would say Loire Valley. Loire is a beautiful place on its own, but the variety and especially the quality of the wines are very underrated (I a big Chenin Blanc Fan). For New World Wine regions, I would say Napa Valley, because the wide variety of different wines within a relatively small area, and of course great restaurants and lifestyle in general.

tkastorff wrote:man I wasted 5 minutes of my life trying the sample online version on your site

might as well have been in Chinese, the highest level questions are ridiculous!

looks very high quality though, kudos to a nice product

I hear ya, got 4 right....and that was only because I guessed lucky enough on two of em! Yikes, well, looks like I have a LOT to learn!

bhodilee wrote:Amazon Links for all books so far mentioned
Wine Bible
Oxford guide
Exploring Wine Amazon had two of these, I figured it was the CIA one

Probably not a "must have" like some of the others... but one I'm thinking about getting is "Exploring Missouri Wine Country"

I grew up in the Show Me State, but never new they had a thriving wine country. Now I'm out in here in Northern CA where wineries abound but I'm intrigued and want to go back home and check out some of the MO wineries now.

bwiss wrote:Thanks for the offer....I travel very light, but I will keep you in mind. As far as a favorite wine region, that is difficult but if I had to narrow it down, I would say Loire Valley. Loire is a beautiful place on its own, but the variety and especially the quality of the wines are very underrated (I a big Chenin Blanc Fan). For New World Wine regions, I would say Napa Valley, because the wide variety of different wines within a relatively small area, and of course great restaurants and lifestyle in general.

I played the online version, it's very fun even though I had to guess just to get 4. Have you thought about turning this into a board game? Similiar to trivial pursuit. Would make an excellent drinking game, there aren't enough mature drinking games. I feel bad playing quarters with wine.

Technical question: Will this run on Intel Macs?
The system requirements say PowerPC, but some applications will work for both and some only on PowerPC....

bhodilee wrote:I feel bad playing quarters with wine.

and it's a little hard to play flip cup with a Riedel

bkarney wrote:and it's a little hard to play flip cup with a Reidel

precisely

I lost my spaghetti. =(-YAH! Got a relatively easy round and got 8/10 with only one or two wild guesses. Hey, how about some questions on Israel?

Loweeel wrote:I lost my spaghetti. =(-YAH! Got a relatively easy round and got 8/10 with only one or two wild guesses. Hey, how about some questions on Israel?

showoff

Loweeel wrote:I lost my spaghetti. =(-YAH! Got a relatively easy round and got 8/10 with only one or two wild guesses. Hey, how about some questions on Israel?

crazy filter going on there

bhodilee wrote:showoff

the second game is a lot of fun also

esperanto wrote:Technical question: Will this run on Intel Macs?
The system requirements say PowerPC, but some applications will work for both and some only on PowerPC....

i might be wrong, but isn't it on the new intel macs that they have 'rosetta stone' or something built in that automatically translates powerpc-written software to intel? i'm not positive it works for everything, but it has for everything i've tried.

i think for a game it would be fine. that said, if you want to do some things that require a lot of processor power (analysis programs, visulalization, whatever) it can be slow because it does alot of translating on the fly.

SmilingBoognish wrote:Sometimes you get the woot, sometimes the woot gets you!

In Soviet Russia, the woot ALWAYS gets you!!

bwiss wrote:Thanks for the offer....I travel very light, but I will keep you in mind. As far as a favorite wine region, that is difficult but if I had to narrow it down, I would say Loire Valley. Loire is a beautiful place on its own, but the variety and especially the quality of the wines are very underrated (I a big Chenin Blanc Fan). For New World Wine regions, I would say Napa Valley, because the wide variety of different wines within a relatively small area, and of course great restaurants and lifestyle in general.

You have to go see the wine route of Israel. It's an ancient world wine region that's producing both old world and new world styled wines. Because I'd been there twice before going to Napa, Napa remined me of the Shomron region in Israel with a few more trees.

bhodilee wrote:I played the online version, it's very fun even though I had to guess just to get 4. Have you thought about turning this into a board game? Similiar to trivial pursuit. Would make an excellent drinking game, there aren't enough mature drinking games. I feel bad playing quarters with wine.

I own just such a game - Vino! The 'trivial pursuit' game of wine. I think it's fun, but I can't ever find anyone to play with me. Just reading the cards to test myself is not as entertaining, so I've come close to just giving it away several times.

Maybe I'll bring it along to a DC/VA tasting some time...

bhodilee wrote:... there aren't enough mature drinking games. I feel bad playing quarters with wine.

I spent all day at a textbook workshop, so you'll have to allow me this one: "mature drinking games," isn't that another oxymoron?

INTLGerard wrote:Labrat Volunteer
I have the cd so f.w.i.w. here’s my take...

The online demo clearly demonstrates the game for what it is. A straight forward trivia game in a user friendly multiple choice format that explains the answers. I found the questions to be fairly designed to challenge noobs as well as those educated on an advanced level. The game provides an entertaining and challenging approach to improving your knowledge of wine globally and you will be challenged especially at the master level. If you are enrolled in wine education this can serve as a helpful tool to help you key on areas you may be weak in and need to focus on. If not, the game will enlighten you on how much there is to learn on the subject. The two person play maximum is limited but that can be worked around. The use of percentage scoring is somewhat vague for competitive scoring but again is an easy work around. To sum it up, if trivia challenges entertain you and you are passionate about learning more about wine globally, you can’t beat the price for the entertaining education you’ll get. Nice little gift idea for the oenophiliacs in your life. IMHO!

BTW…I definitely recommend the Oxford Companion to Wine (make sure it’s the 3rd ed.) as an excellent accompaniment for this game. The questions will have you researching your answers which will only broaden your wine knowledge!

Bring the game to the next w.w. group tasting and make a fun wine competition out of it!

labrat threw me over ... thanks International-G!

Either that, or you’re from Augusta, Missouri. How’s the Norton looking this year?

Just for the record, was down in Augusta this past Saturday (it's not that far of a drive from my house) and while I don't know how the actual grapes are doing this year (I stayed where the wine was), this years bottles of wines are great. So I guess lasts years Norton/Cynthianas are did well.

kmarschel wrote:I'd just like to point out that if you are from Augusta, Missouri (which I am not), you'd be wondering how the Cynthiana is this year, not the Norton. For some reason those areas in Missouri north of the Missouri River refer to Norton as Cynthiana (same grape, different name) and those south of the river (and everywhere else in the known world, as far as I know) refer to it at Norton.

How's that for useless information?

I found it really interesting! Last month went to the Montelle Winery in MO. and it was beautiful and a great way to spend a day. Never heard of Cynthiana before (or Norton for that matter) but did bring back a bottle of the Cynthiana Port. I loved it and can't wait to back for more.

scored 50% on the online game. and half of the answers i got right were guesses at that. in for one.

INTLGerard wrote:Labrat Volunteer
I have the cd so f.w.i.w. here’s my take...

The online demo clearly demonstrates the game for what it is. A straight forward trivia game in a user friendly multiple choice format that explains the answers. I found the questions to be fairly designed to challenge noobs as well as those educated on an advanced level. The game provides an entertaining and challenging approach to improving your knowledge of wine globally and you will be challenged especially at the master level. If you are enrolled in wine education this can serve as a helpful tool to help you key on areas you may be weak in and need to focus on. If not, the game will enlighten you on how much there is to learn on the subject. The two person play maximum is limited but that can be worked around. The use of percentage scoring is somewhat vague for competitive scoring but again is an easy work around. To sum it up, if trivia challenges entertain you and you are passionate about learning more about wine globally, you can’t beat the price for the entertaining education you’ll get. Nice little gift idea for the oenophiliacs in your life. IMHO!

BTW…I definitely recommend the Oxford Companion to Wine (make sure it’s the 3rd ed.) as an excellent accompaniment for this game. The questions will have you researching your answers which will only broaden your wine knowledge!

Bring the game to the next w.w. group tasting and make a fun wine competition out of it!

I was gonna save my money this week, but INTLGerard just had to push me over the edge.
First sucker: kejriwalv
Speed to first woot: 1m 14.110s

Last wooter to woot: tommythecat78

Loweeel wrote:I lost my spaghetti. =(-YAH! Got a relatively easy round and got 8/10 with only one or two wild guesses. Hey, how about some questions on Israel?

Hello Loweeel,

Good point...the few wines I have had from Israel were very nice, somewhat Bordeaux-like. Unforforunately, we do not see them too often. The only time I enjoyed them was in Bordeaux at Vin-Expo. If I recall, there is a least one or two questions on Israel on the WWC, but the questions are randomized, so it may take a long time before it comes up.

Thanks and Happy Friday,
BW

tkastorff wrote:man I wasted 5 minutes of my life trying the sample online version on your site

might as well have been in Chinese, the highest level questions are ridiculous!

looks very high quality though, kudos to a nice product

Tkastorff,

thanks for visiting the website, and yes the questions are challenging....one reason for the "learn more" feature. The website only has the "Masters Level", the game itself has a "Wine Drinker" and "Wine Student" Level and the questions are consdierably easier. Do not feel bad about missing the questions; I have had some of the country's top Somms miss some of the questions. No matter how much we know about wine, we are all students of wine.

All the best,
BW

bhodilee wrote:I played the online version, it's very fun even though I had to guess just to get 4. Have you thought about turning this into a board game? Similiar to trivial pursuit. Would make an excellent drinking game, there aren't enough mature drinking games. I feel bad playing quarters with wine.

bhodilee,

thanks for your kind words, but I think I will stick to the computer format. There is wine game, I think it is called "Bouquet" which is a board game.

Thanks again....
BW

INTLGerard wrote:Labrat Volunteer
I have the cd so f.w.i.w. here’s my take...

The online demo clearly demonstrates the game for what it is. A straight forward trivia game in a user friendly multiple choice format that explains the answers. I found the questions to be fairly designed to challenge noobs as well as those educated on an advanced level. The game provides an entertaining and challenging approach to improving your knowledge of wine globally and you will be challenged especially at the master level. If you are enrolled in wine education this can serve as a helpful tool to help you key on areas you may be weak in and need to focus on. If not, the game will enlighten you on how much there is to learn on the subject. The two person play maximum is limited but that can be worked around. The use of percentage scoring is somewhat vague for competitive scoring but again is an easy work around. To sum it up, if trivia challenges entertain you and you are passionate about learning more about wine globally, you can’t beat the price for the entertaining education you’ll get. Nice little gift idea for the oenophiliacs in your life. IMHO!

BTW…I definitely recommend the Oxford Companion to Wine (make sure it’s the 3rd ed.) as an excellent accompaniment for this game. The questions will have you researching your answers which will only broaden your wine knowledge!

Bring the game to the next w.w. group tasting and make a fun wine competition out of it!

Dear INTLGerard,

Thanks for your kind words. I am very happy you are enjoying the WWC.

All the best,
BW