Do not be afraid to save scum tile rerolls and harvest years, the game is all RNG and simply letting the game run on its own will ruin you completely at random.

An Ripeness range of 5 or 6 is not always the ideal rating, sometimes a Ripeness score of 7 will give you the Tannin score necessary without late game production methods.
Currently on Patch 2.5 for Terroir a 5 star Rkatsiteli is impossible, I have tried every combination and regardless of the Sweetness score will not get you a 5 star rating.
Disregard the "Body" characteristic, for many varietals it is irrelevant and only affects the likelihood of developing separate flavors for specific varietals.

Some notable caveats about the scoring system:
Start corking your wines when you hit 4 star critics.
Bottle color matters and I have labelled the varietals accordingly.
Not corking your wine and having the wrong bottle color will incur a .5 star penalty each.

I have had more success in the early game with either focusing solely on Chardonnay or both Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. Regardless of your ripeness score you will not achieve the Tannin score necessary to get 5 star Cabernet Sauvignon at Critic level 3. Rush your first Circumstance Card and give your first 5 star wine to the Mayor for some easy starting cash. You do not need more than 2 Loam soil tiles as Chardonnay and Carbernet Sauvignon will not carry you long but Rkatsiteli and Zinfandel will carry you for many in-game years.



Buying Sand soil is a great mid-game jump point, focus on grabbing plenty of Forest and Sand tiles. Noble Rot Semillion or Rose Grenache are perfect mid-game options. The only soil type left is Clay Soil, and Pinot Noir will easily net you $200+ a bottle by late game with max renown. White Oak Barrels make the game easy, as long as you start your Acidity at the right level by the juicing stage White Oak Barrels will never dip below the optimum Acidity or Tannin scores for that varietal.

Circumstance


Card Outcomes:
Mayoral Visit:
Give him a 5 star wine for a massive early game cash gift.

Army Donation:
Give 3000 bottles for a 20% tile and varietal purchasing discount, ignore for a 10 point renown boost.

Wine Bootlegger:
Botch 3 batches of wine with a critic score of 2.5 or less or suffer a 10% price deduction for 5 in-game years.

Phylloxera Experiment:
Random rapid vine growth for 2 years, cancel the experiment and all your tiles will become infected.

National Park Allocation:
Purchase an accumulative 12 Forest or Lake tiles within 2 in-game years for additional tavern space, renown boost, and tile purchasing discount.

Circumstance Card Exhaustion:
Massive cash and renown gift. (Repeatable?)

I may go into further detail about how to navigate the Chance and Circumstance cards if this guide gets attention as they can make or break your Vineyard. Feel free to post any questions below.