I’m not really a game person. Actually the thought of a game night doesn’t do it for me. I’m more the “crack open a bottle of wine (or 10) and shoot the shit” kind of gal. But, my interest was piqued when I received the game “Read Between the Wines” to take for a test run. The last time I played a drinking game, was probably flip cup in the 90s. But this was WAYYYYYY more refined.

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Because my squad is all over South Florida running in different directions at different speeds, it took about a month to actually nail down a date/time for our grown-up playdate.

The game comes with everything you need, minus the wine and glasses (which I happen to have a bounty of). I told everyone to bring a bottle of wine (dealer’s choice) and I would provide the food, including “The Dip” (I’m kinda famous in some circles for my spinach artichoke dip).

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Once everyone said their hellos and caught up, I got super bossy and moved everyone to the table so we could get to business. I made the mistake of not really reviewing the rules/directions BEFORE everyone got there which did not work in my favor. I totally screwed up the first couple of rounds and even left some things out.

That's me screwing up the directions and my friends laughing at me

That’s me screwing up the directions and my friends laughing at me

And if I wasn’t leaving things out, my friend since before birth, Kelley, was totally derailing my wrangling with side conversations at every turn. It’s kind of her thing after a few drinks (in addition to a super squeaky voice) so we are used to it and love her immensely for it.

But once we got rolling it was highly entertaining. Basically I served as the “wine waiter” and poured a small sampling like a super knowledgeable sommelier, for each person. Then they had to taste it and write a description of the wine based on a theme I gave them from a deck of little cards provided (that’s the part I originally forgot and it’s kind of a big deal).

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For example one theme was to describe the wine using sports-related terms to which I received clever responses like “tastes like burnt ball park hot dogs” and “not a home run”. Another example was to describe the upbringing of the grapes for this wine which elicited some dicey and questionable responses. Let’s just say my friends are beyond inappropriate and I effing love it.

Once everyone turned in their responses, I read them aloud and the table had to guess who said what. The winner with the most correct guesses at the end won. And the prize was (most appropriately) a bottle of wine.

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This pic speaks volumes. That’s Elise hard at work carrying the weight for her teammate, Kelley (the derailer). Kelley and I had many moments like this growing up.

We went for a few rounds, the responses definitely got funnier and more inventive (and more salacious) as we went (combo of the wine and the inherent hilariousness of my friends).

We had a great time and lots of laughs.

Thank you to all of my girls who came to play and for being such sports while I (and Marissa – my unofficial photog) were like paparazzi trying to capture all the moments. And congrats to Lorin and Debbie (the winners)! Lorin, btw, treated the game like a psychological evaluation based on the descriptions, which was clearly a winning strategy because her team took home the gold.

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I only have two MUSTS  in terms of advice if you are going to engage in this game.

  1. Study up on the rules beforehand. It’s not that they are difficult, but there are a few different steps and after a couple of glasses of wine they are not so easy to navigate (totally my fault)
  2. You CANNOT play with lame people. I’m not kidding. Don’t invite people to be “polite”. Invite funny people only or your game will suck.

If you want to experience Read Between the Wines you can purchase it at www.readbetweenwines.com or click here. And because I totes have your back, I got my readers a discount code for 15% off – RBTWINES

This is a GREAT holiday gift for the game lover who also loves wine. (Or even the teachers who are with our kids all day ;))

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Club W