"Fancy experiencing life as a winemaker and seeing your plonk become a renowned vintage tipple? This is the game for you! This is a polished, high quality sim, despite its deliberately minimalist graphics. But there’s more to it than just planting, picking, and ageing your wines. Just like in real life, you’ll need to measure the acidity of the soil, keep an eye on the health of your vines, know how long to ferment your grapes, clean your vats, and even take care of marketing your products: selecting corks, the shape of your bottles, and getting them in the shops. You’ll also be at the mercy of the seasons (you don’t pick grapes in spring!) and the vagaries of the weather. This is a realistic and demanding sim with management and puzzle mechanics used to create a successful winery. You’ll have to find the right formula to make – and sell! – quality wines. The whole winemaking process is contained in the game: there are diseases that might infect your vines, and the six grape varieties found in the game’s database, along with their tasting notes, are there to help you create the tastiest blends. Would you really throw some Shiraz into your Chardonnay?? We recommend starting off with the tutorial, which recounts the tale of an English winemaker who has moved to Italy to run his grandfather’s winery, but there’s no need to spend too long in there. It turns a bit sour if left open too long! The Sandbox mode is much more fun as soon as you’ve mastered the game’s mechanics, and there is also a Challenge mode that contains six mini-scenarios that challenge you to achieve particular goals. These might involve your cashflow, your vineyard’s reputation, or the number of orders to fulfil. This means there’s plenty to do in this sim that’s easy to pick up and play, and promises hundreds of hours’ playtime. Developed by Broken Arms Games, a small studio of six developers based in Italy, and published by Pixmain, Hundred Days – Winemaking Simulator was a real hit here at Blacknut. First and foremost, it’s the only winemaking sim out there. But it also teaches you as much about wine as the very best winemaking textbooks. Fun fact: the ""Hundred Days"" in the title refers to the amount of time that passes between the vines coming into bloom and the grapes being picked!"