WSET Wine Game
89 out of 100
Published Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Overview
If you are looking for a simple app to test your knowledge of where wine regions are then the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) have a free app that is perfect. Available only in the Apple store, the Game is simple and engaging. You are given a wine label, the name of the wine and the name of the region. You have to quickly zoom in and out of a map of the world to select the region that the wine comes from. The game is on a countdown and lasts only 1 minute and you have up to 10 wines to match before the time runs out.
At Level 1 you have to get all 10 wines, and have to identify which country the wines come from. In level 2 you need to drill deeper into each country and identify the exact region, but only need to get 6 out of 10 correct. The levels progress in a similar way to Level 6. I quickly got to Level 4 which requires 8 out of 10 wines correct to unlock the next level. I got stuck at this level for a while, and really need a wine atlas beside me so I can work out where some of those pesky regions are.
To really learn from the app I wish they would provide the regions with the correct names to them. Some of the regions are a bit obscure and while you can view the wines you got right and wrong after the game there is no way to find out where the correct region would be. I think this enhancement would be great.
The game has an optional social media element by supporting OpenFeint. I did not test this part of the app but OpenFeint typically lets users add friends, see what their friends are playing, view leader boards, forums and live chat. What aspects of this have been integrated into this game I am unsure of.
In addition to the game the app also opens a webpage for the WSETs main website. This is not a mobile version and looks poor on a 4th Generation Ipod touch, that I tested the device on. That said, the app ran fast and fluid, so should run well on the bigger apple devices.
The game is a simple way of testing your wine region knowledge, it could make some small additions to aid in learning but as a game it is perfect for the casual gaming wine enthusiasts. Simplicity should not beguile a great little wine App. I rate this App 89 out of 100 and if you have an Apple device recommend you try it out yourself.
