What if tasting wine became a game, an investigation, an accessible sensory adventure for everyone?
With Vinonyma, two young entrepreneurs transform a vacation moment into an original concept that combines know-how, made-in-France craftsmanship, and the pleasure of sharing. Their idea is to offer an immersion into wine without intimidation, where learning and enjoyment go hand in hand, sample after sample.
Everything begins almost by chance, during a vacation tasting that brings together Pierre and Maxime Dubost in an unexpected universe. Still in their early twenties, they visit the La Bégude estate. There, the head of wine tourism reveals the winemaking process before leading a guided tasting. This first experience, designed to explain the climate, the gesture, the parcel, or the vintage, shows them how tasting can become both playful and accessible. From this realization, the idea of a blind tasting game is born.
Coming from a family of knife-makers deeply attached to made in France, they seek to recreate the wine experience in the form of a game. As the project takes shape, they conduct a market study and validate the existence of real demand. Their training at KEDGE provides the tools needed to refine the concept. The first prototypes confirm its potential. What remains is to define the ideal duration, the wine selection, the associations, and the narrative thread. Everything is designed to create a game that is both expert-driven and playful.
Once the name is chosen, prototypes make it possible to engage partners who will support the project’s growth. The wine selection, bottling process, containers, accessories, and packaging are all made in France. Bottling, a delicate operation to preserve aromas, is carried out by partner estates. The wine, initially in bottle, is transferred into tubes without contact with oxygen, thanks to a unique inerting process applied at six critical points. Gradually, the project becomes a product, then a brand rooted in French terroirs.
Vinonyma: The Game Principle
Here, tasting becomes a sensory investigation. Each box brings together five small bottles and a prestige wine to be discovered blind. Using the game board and the tasting method provided, players explore the wines, compare impressions with the expert’s descriptions, attribute characteristics to each wine, and attempt to solve the final riddle revealed when the label hiding the wine’s name is removed. A playful approach that renews the ritual of tasting.
Vinonyma: An Immersive Blind Tasting Game
Designed for two to three participants, Vinonyma transforms tasting into an oenological investigation. Over the course of ninety minutes, players explore the fundamentals of wine tasting: vineyard, color, nose, and palate, using a large-format game board and illustrated cards. Each participant shares their impressions before comparing them with those of the oenological expert. Tasting becomes conversation and analysis, a collective pleasure.
Unlike a rigid educational game, the experience remains open. Players can keep the vials, reuse the board, and reinvent the session with other wines and other guests. Tasting thus leaves the realm of verdict and becomes a renewable adventure.
Following the success of its first box at the end of 2024, Vinonyma continued its development by launching a second edition in 2025, already paving the way for discoveries in 2026.
At the end of the year, the brand also introduced a new box dedicated to red wines, followed in early spring by a box entirely devoted to white wines. This release features fully redesigned packaging for retail distribution.
Each box brings together four French cuvées selected for their aromatic singularity and balance, offering a clear and accessible reading of the diversity of terroirs. The estates featured on the brand’s website and the wine selection, along with the professional descriptions of each cuvée, are entrusted to an oenologist designated as the “expert” in the game.
A Conclusive Test with Wine Merchants, Opening the Way to Concept Stores
Wine merchants were quickly won over by the precision of the concept and the quality of the object. The figures confirmed it. After an initial order, pioneer retailers placed second and then third orders. Public enthusiasm followed, with sales peaks at Valentine’s Day, Father’s Day, and year-end celebrations.
This success led Pierre and Maxime to expand their commercial outreach, earning excellent feedback from wine merchants. Distributors appreciate a proposition that extends the customer relationship beyond the purchase and conveys wine culture without intimidation. The concept naturally finds its place in kitchenware and tableware boutiques, concept stores, and gift shops, where customers seek experience as much as the product itself.
Launch data reveals a predominantly female clientele aged 25 to 55. Male customers often discover the game through invitations and word of mouth, which accelerates its diffusion. Priced at €59, the box performs particularly well when showcased in-store. Vinonyma speaks to a generation eager to learn without solemnity, to understand without jargon, and to seek meaning as much as sensation.
In a market where wine discovery is reinventing itself through workshops, educational content, and immersive experiences, the brand occupies a singular position. Neither a traditional board game, nor a professional tool, nor a simple gift, it becomes a bridge between pleasure and knowledge, a modern and joyful way to enter French terroirs, guided sample by sample. Recently offered on the B2B Ankorstore marketplace, it has already seen its sales take off.
Source: Home Fashion News Jan26
