• Designed by: Jérôme Haupert and Tarot du Vin
• Published by: Jérôme Haupert and Tarot du Vin – https://tarotduvin.com/
• Publication Date: 2025
• RRP: €40 at tarotduvin.com
• ISBN: N/A
• Review by: Harandayl

You know the worry you have when two of your friends from completely different worlds are about to meet for the first time and you’ve no idea if they’ll get on? Well, that’s kind of how I approached the Tarot du Vin. I mean, I love tarot and I love wine but, a few tipsy readings for friends aside, I’ve never really thought about the two working together. Turns out they get along famously!

Tarot du Vin by French artist Jérôme Haupert is a Marseille style tarot celebrating wine and winemaking. It’s a standard 78 card deck which is straightforward in presenting traditional tarot imagery but within the context of our favourite French tipple.

Tarot du Vin works perfectly as a tarot de Marseille. Firstly, there’s the French connection – it’s designed by a French artist, printed in France and uses French traditions of tarot to celebrate the country’s acclaimed wine tradition.

But this deck captures the spirit of the Marseille tarot in other ways. There’s nothing snobbish or pretentious about the approach to wine here, this is very much wine as a product of the land, enjoyed by those who make it. It showcases the spirit of the vineyard rather than the restaurant or wine club.

This fits well with the immediacy of the tarot de Marseille, originally widely available as cheap game playing cards for regular folk. The deck is not overlaid with esoteric symbolism, it ditches pretension and offers a fun way to use the tarot.

There are two versions of Tarot du Vin – colour and monochrome. I had the colour version and it’s a gorgeous palette that makes effective use of blocks of colour in the image segments alongside areas and details in black. Having looked at online images of the monochrome version it looks just as stunning. The absence of colour makes the images reminiscent of traditional wine label designs – perfect!

Images are bold, illustrative and at times irreverent, characters’ faces are full of expression – very much akin to the Marseille decks of old.

In the majors/trumps and court cards this deck remains true to the structure, imagery and symbolism of traditional Marseille decks but with a wine and winemaking slant. Think barrels and bottles, corks and wine glasses – even the Pope holds up a corkscrew instead of a crozier!

These cards are cheeky in more ways than one. Most characters are wearing little more than an apron and a smile, so expect a few bums! They have flushed faces and are definitely vinophiles! There’s wit and humour in the illustrations which can’t help but make you smile. This is not a deck for complex or profound practice, this is a ‘sit down with friends and keep it light’ kind of deck

It’s not a diverse deck in terms of representation though, something also true to the Marseille tradition but which many artists today seek to address.

The pips follow the Marseille structure quite closely for Coins and Cups. I love the spilt wine of the overturned glass on the 10 of Cups – true Marseille but with a twist. Special mention also for the Ace of Coins, a wonderful surprise which honours the card from the 17th century French tarot by Jacques Viéville in naming all the trumps in a little poem – with some added wine references of course. All the Coins are suitably inscribed ‘In Vino Veritas’.

Swords and Batons don’t follow traditional Marseille designs but are more reminiscent of the 17th century anonymous Tarot de Paris. Haupert has successfully brought together a number of historical French tarot influences to enrich this deck but it’s all done with a lightness of touch. You don’t have to be a tarot historian to appreciate Tarot du Vin but if you are there are some lovely touches that demonstrate that this lively deck is underpinned by some deep tarot traditions.

And l must make special mention of the animals in this deck – they’re brilliant! There are some wonderfully characterful horses and I think my favourite ever lion on any version of The World card.

The cards are smaller than standard tarot cards which is also true to the Marseille tradition. Now, this comes down to personal preference but this choice feels right to me for this accessible deck. The images are punchy and so hold their own over a smaller card area and are not about fussy details, they are bold and immediate.

The cards are quite thin and I wouldn’t say they feel premium, that said they have a nice coating and shuffle wonderfully. The deck comes in a decent tuck box. There’s no book or guide included but the images need no explanation, and as a Marseille reader I neither expect nor want a basic Little White Book with a tarot de Marseille. If this is your first Marseille or pip deck though, you’ll need to think about other resources to assist your reading.

Haupert has initialled each design discreetly in the bottom righthand corner so, if you read reversals, you can always tell which way up the card is – something often very challenging with Marseille and pip decks. The luscious card back design continues the wine theme and is reversible.

The First Edition (signed on the box by the artist) is a limited run of just 120 (60 of each variant). The colour edition has sold out but the monochrome variant was still available at time of writing. There’s a second edition of the colour version available via the Tarot du Vin website.

Overall this cheeky little deck is perfect for an evening with friends. Fresh and lively it has punchy, earthy notes and a satisfying finish. Ready to consume now, it pairs beautifully with conversation and good times. Santé!

To purchase the deck, please visit: https://tarotduvin.com/