In Viticulture, the players find themselves in the roles of people in rustic, pre-modern Tuscany who have inherited meager vineyards. They have a few plots of land, an old crushpad, a tiny cellar, and three workers. They each have a dream of being the first to call their winery a true success.

The players are in the position of determining how they want to allocate their workers throughout the year. Every season is different on a vineyard, so the workers have different tasks they can take care of in the summer and winter. There's competition over those tasks, and often the first worker to get to the job has an advantage over subsequent workers.

Fortunately for the players, people love to visit wineries, and it just so happens that many of those visitors are willing to help out around the vineyard when they visit as long as you assign a worker to take care of them. Their visits (in the form of cards) are brief but can be very helpful.

Using those workers and visitors, players can expand their vineyards by building structures, planting vines (vine cards), and filling wine orders (wine order cards). Players work towards the goal of running the most successful winery in Tuscany.

Viticulture - Essential Edition comes with components for Viticulture, but adds some of the expansions from Tuscany, including 36 Mama & Papa cards, Field cards (previously known as "Properties"), and 24 Automa cards (solo variant), along with a couple of minor rule changes.

How does the Essential Edition differ from the second edition of Viticulture?

Aesthetically, the box art is slightly different and the rulebook is more detailed. The components are largely the same as the second edition of Viticulture, with the addition of several expansion modules from Tuscany, and a new mix of Visitor cards, including some new and advanced visitors from Tuscany.

In terms of components, the Essential Edition makes the following additions to standard Viticulture:

• Mamas & Papas expansion from Tuscany: 36 Mamas & Papas cards
• Property expansion from Tuscany: Field cards
• Solo variant from Tuscany: 24 Automa cards
• Selected mix of cards from Viticulture & Tuscany: 76 Visitor cards

Are there any rule changes?

Yes, two small changes that are "official," but it's not imperative that you play with them. 

• There's no longer a 25-point max in any version of Viticulture.
• If you want to gain the 1 VP bonus from a tasting room, you need to have at least 1 wine token in your cellar. You don't do anything with the token--it just needs to be in the cellar, representing a cask from which guests can sample wine when they visit the tasting room. This change is meant to stymie strategies that try to completely avoid making wine while still making elements of those strategies viable.

Also the wording on the Promoter card has changed from "and" to "or", and the Homesteader card has changed from a $1 discount to a $3 discount.