Analysis: Clue, Murder at the Winery
While searching for available listings of the fabled Detective Conan CLUE, Google's (de)generative slop results showed me an unexpected gem: Clue, Murder at the Winery.
Introduction
At least in recent years, Hasbro has been collaborating with businesses to create special editions of the game for them, for example the Anthropologie Edition and Shinola Hotel Edition. This appears at first glance to be more of the same.
Some vague details can be found on the official website:
Clue Murder at the Winery Game Pack
Uncork the Truth, Solve the Vintage Mystery - step into the shadowed vines of intrigue with Murder at the Winery, a first-of-its-kind game board complete with an exquisitely etched bottle of wine.
Same Great Gameplay!
Mano's and Hasbro have collaborated to uncork a riveting adventure where the classic pursuit of "Whodunit?" pairs well with the rich allure of Cabernet Sauvignon.
New Weapons & Characters
Was it Lord Malbec in the Barrel Room with the Corkscrew? Perhaps it was Professor Prosecco with the Broken Wine Bottle in the Tasting Room? Are you ready to step into the shadowed vines of intrigue?
Pairs well with game nights
Enjoy a full bodied, dry red, with a smooth finish while you play. This delicious California Cabernet Sauvignon comes in a deep-etched, hand-painted bottle that features designs from this rendition of Clue!
— Mano's Wine⧉ (snapshot)
If you visit the general Hasbro collaboration page, you'll find out this release of Clue is part of a larger collaboration, which includes other brands such as Scrabble and Ouija. It is surprising to see no mention of Monopoly, as it is a game which is almost always prioritized over Cluedo. Perhaps "having a good time" and Monopoly are mutually exclusive concepts.
A brief timeline of events:
| Date | Note | Link |
|---|---|---|
| 2024.06.20 | The "about" page for the Clue: Murder at the Winery edition. | ⧉ |
| 2024.08.15 | The Clue collection's page is incomplete and listed as "coming soon". | ⧉ |
| 2024.10.25 | A promotional YouTube video is uploaded by @ManosGiftsKansasCity for Clue: Murder at the Winery edition. | ⧉ |
| 2024.10.30 | A promotional Instagram reel is uploaded by @manoswine for the entire collaboration, including Clue: Murder at the Winery. | ⧉ |
| 2024.11.02 | The earliest snapshot of the game set's product page is created. | ⧉ |
| 2024.12.07 | A brief appearance of the Clue: Murder at the Winery edition on the Lifestyle Today Show S5E37 aired on 2024.12.07. | ⧉ |
| 2024.12.10 | An interview on ABC15 Arizona with CEO Kyle Rensenhouse discussing the collaboration with Hasbro is uploaded to YouTube. | ⧉ |
| 2024.12.17 | Another interview, this time on WSFL39 South Florida, discussing the collaboration is uploaded to YouTube. | ⧉ |
In these interviews, a little insight is given into the partnership, at least as it pertains to Clue:
Here at Mano's, we really like to have fun with what we do. So, everybody likes wine, people like games, so we decided to combine the two, and that's what we've done with our partnership with Hasbro and Warner Bros.
Our partnership with Hasbro, we've created this 75th anniversary "Clue: Murder at the Winery" edition, an iconic game. Everyone's usually either—if you're having a game night—you're drinking, you're having a good time. So let's just make it easy for everyone and create our own theme which was "Murder at the Winery".
You'll see special tools—everything is unique—special characters. Instead of a revolver we have a corkscrew and a broken bottle. Instead of "Colonel Mustard" we have "Colonel Cabernet" and things like that.
— Kyle Rensenhouse
To summarize, it would appear this edition released some time in late October 2024, and exists as a larger collaboration with Hasbro to create an "interactive drinking" experience, wrapping up the 75th anniversary's holiday season. Overall, it is exciting that it does exist because the thought of owning an officially-licensed Clue wine bottle is just enough a both hilarious and thrilling prospect to indulge.
Star of the Show
If we may be honest here for a moment: the real star of the show is the wine. Even Mano's knows this, as the game set is designed with a window cut out as to show off the stunning etched bottle before even opening the box. I'm not a connoisseur of wine, so the taste rating is lost on me, but according to the winery itself:
- California Cabernet Sauvignon
- Full Bodied
- Dry Red with a smooth finish
- 13.5% ABV
Mano’s Handcrafted Reserve is Cabernet Sauvignon from premiere wine making regions of California. Our California Cabernet Sauvignon is ready to drink right out of the bottle. A beautiful floral of black cherry and blackberry with notes of toasted vanilla and dark fruits and a beautiful pleasing finish.
— Mano's Wine⧉ (snapshot)
The bottle that comes packaged with the game set can be separately purchased for a discount. In USD, the game set retails for $64.95, the bottle $44.95, making the game elements and box themselves $20.00, which is close enough to the $21.99 MSRP for the traditional 2023 edition.1
All items in the collection can be found via the collection's page on the winery's online shop⧉. Other than the game set, the items include:
- Clue Original Weapons Etched Wine⧉ for $44.95. This one has the Clue logo higher up in the bottle and colored in gray instead of gold. As noted by the product's title, the bottle features the six original weapons instead of the six found in this edition of the game.
- Clue Character 375ml Game Night 6 Pack⧉ for $44.95. This six-pack set includes smaller 375ml bottles, each featuring a colored etch of the six new suspects to this edition of the game and the Clue logo at the bottom margin.
- Clue Whodunit Custom Etched Wine Bottle⧉ for $57.95. This more expensive option is an interesting custom-etch option with gold etched Clue logo at the top and a "WHODUNIT?" subtitle beneath it with a magnifying glass. There is room left below for up to 3 lines of custom text, with a maximum of 30 characters per row.
The temptations to order an officially-licensed Hasbro product etched with all sorts of sigma brainrot rizz lingo is nontrivial. Wallets beware: if you're going Full Completionist mode, all items in the set will set you back a total of $212.80.
Game Components
Opening the box reveals the etched bottle to the left and game elements to the right, all protected in soft black foam. Each component is securely stored in its own cutout. The total component list is as follows:
- 1 quad-fold game board
- 6 colored character movers
- 6 gold-colored weapon tokens
- 21 evidence cards
- 1 confidential case file envelope
- 1 white die with black pips
- 49 detective note sheets
- 1 rulesheet
- 1 guest list card
The return to one die is notable and interesting, as is the lack of any 2023 gimmicks such as "Clue cards". The case file envelope is thick enough to hold all 21 cards instead of just 3, allowing it to be repurposed as a box for the entire deck of evidence cards when not in play. This is a subtle improvement that would be fantastic to have as a mainstay.
Each of the 21 evidence cards is made of a thicker glossy material that is less willing to bend during riffle shuffles but feels nice on the hands. The card designs follow the gold-on-black art direction of the entire collection. The card names are written in a similar biaxial style seen on the cards up until 1963.
The guest list card has each of the six suspects featured in this edition of the game listed out, and is a nice component to have even if it serves zero function in gameplay.
The detective notepad is made from what can be best described as thin chipboard sheets. The binding is admittedly rather weak and can split simply taking the pad out of the foam. They have a very faint wood color and are marked with the Mano's Winery logo at the bottom and the Clue logo at the top. The deduction grid has only four columns, not six, making it difficult to use in a full six-player game depending on how you normally notate your deductions.
The canonical order of the cards as listed on the notesheets is as follows:
| Suspects | Weapons | Rooms |
|---|---|---|
| Lady Rosé | Corkscrew | Greenhouse |
| Lord Malbec | Wine Bottle | Terrace |
| Mayor Merlot | Garden Stake | Tasting Room |
| Professor Prosecco | Grape Vine | Barrel Room |
| Colonel Cabernet | Cheese Knife | Wine Cellar |
| Chef Chardonnay | Pruning Shears | Bottling Room |
| Dining Room | ||
| Lounge | ||
| Grand Hall |
While it is difficult to imagine how it is possible to kill someone with a grape wine, the repainting of the original cast is to say the least imaginative. The inclusion of a cellar reminds me of the original Cluedo patent.2
Cast and Crew
Each of the suspects in this edition are creatively named after a variety of wine. Cabernet is the actual variety of wine chosen for all of the alcoholic items in this collection, proving once again my man Mustard is the Main Character of the game.3
The designs for all six suspects are silhouettes of the 2023 edition's designs, however, the colors and titles are changed. The names and colors are different varieties of wines.4 If we assume the silhouettes are the source of truth, the correspondence is as follows:
| Traditional (2023) | Mano's Winery (2024) |
|---|---|
| Miss Scarlett (Red) | Lady Rosé (Pink) |
| Colonel Mustard (Yellow) | Colonel Cabernet (White) |
| Chef White (White) | Chef Chardonnay (Yellow) |
| Mayor Green (Green) | Lord Malbec (Red) |
| Solicitor Peacock (Blue) | Mayor Merlot (Green) |
| Professor Plum (Purple) | Professor Prosecco (Blue) |
However, if we instead assume the clockwise order around the board (i.e. play order), the correspondence is as follows (starting at six o'clock position):
| Traditional (2023) | Mano's Winery (2024) |
|---|---|
| Miss Scarlett (Red) | Lady Rosé (Pink) |
| Colonel Mustard (Yellow) | Mayor Merlot (Green) |
| Chef White (White) | Professor Prosecco (Blue) |
| Mayor Green (Green) | Colonel Cabernet (White) |
| Solicitor Peacock (Blue) | Chef Chardonnay (Yellow) |
| Professor Plum (Purple) | Lord Malbec (Red) |
One could also go by the order as listed on the detective notesheet:
| Traditional (2023) | Mano's Winery (2024) |
|---|---|
| Miss Scarlett (Red) | Lady Rosé (Pink) |
| Colonel Mustard (Yellow) | Lord Malbec (Red) |
| Chef White (White) | Mayor Merlot (Green) |
| Mayor Green (Green) | Professor Prosecco (Blue) |
| Solicitor Peacock (Blue) | Colonel Cabernet (White) |
| Professor Plum (Purple) | Chef Chardonnay (Yellow) |
Finally, if one really wanted to scrape the bottom of the wine barrel, going by the product image for the Clue Character 375ml Game Night 6 Pack from left to right:
| Traditional (2023) | Mano's Winery (2024) |
|---|---|
| Miss Scarlett (Red) | Lady Rosé (Pink) |
| Colonel Mustard (Yellow) | Lord Malbec (Red) |
| Chef White (White) | Chef Chardonnay (Yellow) |
| Mayor Green (Green) | Mayor Merlot (Green) |
| Solicitor Peacock (Blue) | Professor Prosecco (Blue) |
| Professor Plum (Purple) | Colonel Cabernet (White) |
Lady Rosé corresponds with the same original suspect in all interpretations and is the only character in the roster to do so.
Game Board
The game board is a monochrome gold-on-black design and is a visually pleasing piece of art. The underside has the classic "Mano's Certified Handcrafted" seal. The room interiors are a mix of one-point perspective and top-down orthographic.
All of the rooms and doors retain their exact shape and placement from the 2023 edition—this includes the removal of doors in the Hall and Library. The correspondence for the rooms is easier to find than for the suspects:
| Traditional (2023) | Mano's Winery (2024) |
|---|---|
| Hall | Grand Hall |
| Lounge | Dining Room |
| Dining Room | Barrel Room |
| Kitchen | Greenhouse |
| Ballroom | Terrace |
| Conservatory | Tasting Room |
| Billiard Room | Wine Cellar |
| Library | Bottling Room |
| Study | Lounge |
The secret passages return, still linking opposite corners together, exactly as it has been historically.
The six starting squares for the character movers in play order are listed in the table below. Locations are in relation to the 2023 version of the board.
| Suspect | Location |
|---|---|
| Lady Rosé | one square to the right of Miss Scarlett |
| Mayor Merlot | same square as Colonel Mustard |
| Professor Prosecco | previously unused starting square north of Colonel Mustard |
| Colonel Cabernet | same square as Chef White |
| Chef Chardonnay | same square as Solicitor Peacock |
| Lord Malbec | previously unused starting square east of Miss Scarlett |
You can calculate the distance from each starting square and the nearest door to create a ranking:
| Suspect | Distance |
|---|---|
| Professor Prosecco | 5 |
| Chef Chardonnay | 7 |
| Lord Malbec | 7 |
| Mayor Merlot | 8 |
| Colonel Cabernet | 8 |
| Lady Rosé | 9 |
Depending on whether you prefer to be earlier or later in the play order, it is more favorable to play as either Professor Prosecco (playing third) or Lord Malbec (playing sixth).
As for the physicality of the board itself, it is the classic quad fold, with the seam at three o'clock (instead of the nine o'clock seam in the 2023 edition). The board is slightly smaller than the 2023 edition, but lies perfectly flat out of the box. That is an impressive feat you don't see often nowadays, as not even my copy of 2023's board lies flat two years later.
Rules
The rulesheet is standard Cluedo affairs, but some interesting notes:
- The victim is named Mr. Tannin, a clever reference to the compounds called tannins, found in wines via grape skins.5
- A player cannot freely pick which suspect he plays as; the suspect whose starting square is closest to him is picked instead.
- Only one starting square is on the east edge of the board. If two or more players are sitting three o'clock, they will have to resolve this.
- Lady Rosé always goes first, instead of a die roll like in the 2023 edition. This is more inline with the traditional editions starting with Miss Scarlet.
- It is assumed that if Lady Rosé isn't playing, the first player present in the play order plays first.
- Players are told to fold the notesheet in half to keep it secret from others. The notesheets are described as "notebooks".
- The classic suggestion order differs in this edition.
- The suggestion order is room-suspect-weapon.
- The accusation order is suspect-room-weapon.
- There are a few typos, missing punctuation, and double spaces across the rulesheet:6
Section Mistake Playing, § 3.A Missing period at the end. Playing, § A Missing period after subsection title. Playing, §§ B‑C Formatting disconnected from rest of list. Playing, § D Missing section delimiter. Missing letter at end of word. Incorrect letter in word. Winning Double space. Special Notes, § 5 Missing word. Special Notes, § 6 Missing space between words.
Final Impressions
This is a very beautiful and unique edition of Clue. It approaches the realm of consumable Cluedo releases without the issues with long-term storage and expiration dates, making my job easier. The bottle is a cool novelty and stunning display piece.
The gameplay has some clear balancing issues due to the changes to the starting squares—frankly, no release has been perfectly balanced—but is otherwise the classic gameplay with no modern gimmicks. That's a plus in my book.