If You're Puzzled By Wines These Wine Puzzles May Help
Who doesn’t love a good wine pairing? You can’t beat ice wine with lemon bars, a Rosé with double-cream brie, or bubbles with fried food (let’s face it, these two are great even on their own). But what about a Pinot Noir with a puzzle?
That’s what Yamit Viitaoja-Malmberg started thinking as she recovered from a severe illness that struck just prior to the Covid pandemic. While recovering and isolating with her husband, she kept herself entertained by doing puzzles. Soon she thought, ” ‘What if I built the best puzzle in the world, for myself?’ I knew I’d be working on it for hours and hours, so it’s going to be art!”
Viitaoja-Malmberg a recent graduate of Vinkällan sommelier school combined her two loves—wine and puzzles. Creating a simple sketch of a map of France and its wine regions (her favorite wines), she found an illustrator to bring her sketch to life. It turned out so great that she decided to design two more puzzles, Italy and Spain, and go into business; Water and Wines was born.
Water and Wines Map Puzzles
Water and Wines currently produces ten maps which include eight wine-region puzzles from around the world. They also offer champagne and whisky puzzles. Puzzle collections are divided into Old and New World and they’ll soon add New Zealand wine and Irish whiskey maps to their portfolio.
Viitaoja-Malmberg’s goals are to educate her customers while entertaining them. Her motto is, “Need to know, good to know, fun to know.” With that in mind, great thought and lots of research go into creating a puzzle. “I choose a region and then I use my knowledge from school as well as researching with books”—Jancis Robinson is a favorite— “before sending it to my illustrator.” Sharing her vision of the puzzle, including wine regions, placement, colors, fonts, and anything else she sees in her head, the initial design is put on paper and sent to her team of advisors.
The impressive advisory team includes two of her former sommelier school teachers, Johan Franco Cereceda and Anders Melldén, as well as Essi Avellan, Finland’s first Master of Wine, and Sommelier and author, Maja Berthas. The advisor (sometimes multiple advisors) for each puzzle is chosen with consideration of their regional expertise, though research is still necessary for them due to the ever-changing wine landscape. Take, for example, Bordeaux. In 2021, due to climate change, grape varieties approved for Bordeaux increased by six, including some of Portuguese origin. These new rules meant an update to Water and Wines’s France puzzle which now shows a boat arriving from Portugal.
After conversations about what’s included and what isn’t, and placement of the grape locations, which sometimes have to be adjusted, taking into consideration the pre-determined size of the 1,000-piece puzzle of 48 x 68 centimeters, the puzzle is produced.
Water and Wines has a loyal following, with many using the puzzles as a fun way to learn about wines. As one customer says, “I bought the Italy and France puzzles for my wife who is an avid puzzler. She is also taking her sommelier courses and these puzzles have been very helpful in her studies… as she needs to learn all the regions and grapes for both countries.”
Others agree on the educational aspect but also enjoy the art. “ Beautiful and informative,” says another customer. “We enjoyed putting the puzzle together and now we have framed the poster for our wine room.”
Learning About Wine: Knowledge, then fun
The puzzle is just part of the package, as the box that holds it is carefully designed to educate. When asked what she hopes to offer customers, “First, it’s knowledge, then fun,” says Viitaoja-Malmberg.” I mean, it’s very beautiful to look at one of these puzzles, but the things you start to look for are the details of the wine.” Depending on the puzzle, the inside of the box lids offer characteristics, pairing tips, and bottle and glass types, as well as other tidbits of information. The France puzzle box, for example, segments the wine types into five categories: crisp, fresh dry whites; smooth, medium-body, dry whites; light, fruity reds; smooth, medium-bodied reds; full-bodied reds. These are further subdivided into grape types, with each also listing a flavor profile and recommended food pairings.
Though traditional wine is the main concentration (it’s in the name, after all), Wine and Waters also honors champagne and whisky with their own puzzles. While just as beautiful and educational, so are the boxes, with champagne’s box not only explaining grape and champagne varieties, as well as pairing tips, but also illustrations describing the champagne production process. The whisky box offers names that represent the characteristics of each of the six regions outlined.
While the maps don’t fully encompass all grapes in each region, like a good wine shop, they offer a wide variety. Using the example of their Italy puzzle Viitaola-Malmberg explains. “They have 300 grapes. I have maybe 50-70. Which one do I pick? I know how passionate Italians are about their wine and I had wineries contact me asking how I could miss their grape.” So, how does she choose which grapes are included? “We go back to need to know, good to know, fun to know.”
Quality and sustainability are incredibly important to Viitaola-Malmberg. In respect to quality, Water and Wines puzzle pieces are thicker than most others with a soft lamination that Viitaola-Malmberg describes as feeling like rose petals. Boxes are made as small as possible to minimize the environmental impact when shipped around the world and almost everything included is sustainable.
For each puzzle sold, Water and Wines plants a tree through the Eden Reforestation Projects. They also donate a percentage of their annual profits to Charity Water. Which brings us to the name of the company; why Water and Wines? In Hebrew, Viitaola-Malmberg’s first name, Yamit, means “water” and she loves wine. There’s no doubt that these puzzles are the perfect pairing with a Bordeaux, or a Chardonnay, or a Sangiovese, or a Pinot Noir, or a…