The Best Drinking Board Games for a Buzzy Night In

Board games are a year-round activity. So is enjoying an adult beverage or two with your favorite grown-ups. But what do you get if you merge the two? The perfect winter holiday pastime, of course: drinking board games.

Nothing says the holidays like teasing your friends and loved ones over their lack of knowledge about the difference in flavor and aroma profile between French and American oak barrels. Or, thanks to a randomly drawn card, being forced to down a shot because your phone battery is low. (This will all make sense in a few paragraphs.)

To help your drink-fueled game-playing this winter, we’ve compiled our favorites. They range from seriously educational to raunchy and hangover-inducing. What they all have in common is the sheer fun they provide, as well as the countless opportunities they present to make your loved ones reconsider their decision to spend the evening with you.

A Wine Tasting Murder

“Death at an Elite Wine Tasting” is as involved as you and your guests want it to be. And, as is always the case with such elaborate games, the more you and your guests fling yourself into the characters, the better. Go big with the costumes. Serve a bunch of great wine and cheese. And get to work on figuring out who poisoned the fictional billionaire Alain Bosc in his wine cellar.

Death & Co Bartender’s Choice

Technically, this isn’t a board game, nor a drinking game. However, it’s an invaluable addition to your home mixology arsenal. It’s a delicious and informative way to improve the drinks you’ll enjoy while playing the games below, or any other time.

Created by the team behind famed cocktail bar Death & Co, this game is “a choose-your-own-adventure brainstorming tool.” It includes two distinct decks of cards. “The Classics” deck provides recipes and techniques for 52 canonical cocktails. The Roots deck includes “cards for root cocktails that prompt one or more paths for assembling ingredients that will come together as a complete cocktail.” 

As with everything Death & Co does, this is very thoughtful and beautifully crafted. Before you dip into the other games on this list, have guests choose a card from these decks and see if they can mix up their own drink.

Buzzed

As the name implies, this game is a means to an end. The back of each playing card spells this out with admirable clarity: “WARNING: This Drinking Game Gets You And Your Friends Tipsy.” Alternate players read the top card from the stack of 250. Depending on its prompt, you drink. “Which player has the most unread texts? The player with the most has to take a drink.” “Drink if you’ve ever gotten a haircut that ruined your life. Describe it.” You get the idea. Start hydrating now.

Drunk-opoly

You know you’re in for a good time when the game’s packaging highlights that the board is splashproof and the game cards are waterproof. There are some pretty bawdy prompts that we won’t print here, though the more tame ones include “Do a shot,” and “Take and post a group selfie” (Note: This last one is a terrible idea.) Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Monopoly: Napa Valley Edition

Just like the beloved original, but instead of classic Atlantic City locales, this one is all about Napa Valley wine country. Who wouldn’t want to spend an evening trying to acquire billion-dollar vineyards like Beringer, or luxuriating on the “mustard season” or “hot-air balloon ride” squares?

Sommify: A Blind Wine Tasting Game

When sommeliers identify a wine just by sight, smell, and taste, it’s more than a parlor trick. It’s a skill that takes years of study, training, and practice. Sommify cracks open the door to that world. In this game, according to the company, “players take turns guessing mystery wines in an atmosphere reminiscent of a drinking game, all while accidentally learning how to blind taste like a sommelier.” Sounds like a perfect way to spend a few hours: Everybody drinks great wine and maybe learns a little something along the way.

Tipsy Land

Remember the Candy Land board game from your childhood? The innocence of moving those vibrant plastic pieces around the multicolored track that wove its way across the board like a bright scarf caught in a breeze? This is the opposite, in a good way. Here’s how it works: Roll the dice, move your piece to the appropriate square, and either follow the its prompt or, if instructed, pick a card and follow the instructions. “Thumb war: loser drinks.” “Lowest phone battery drinks.” Pick a “never have I ever” card. “Let someone go through your search history.” You’ll probably want to be several drinks in before you land on that dreaded space.