This informal tasting aims to expose the tasters to the world of wine and the sensory experiences that the different cultivars have to offer.

What is a cultivar?

The tasting will start with a brief discussion around cultivars and their origin and differences. The major cultivars grown in the Cape Winelands, where it is grown and a snapshot overview of the history of the South African wine industry.

What are the major differences between the cultivars?

This is where the fun starts. A few select cultivars are chosen for whom each will have a range of sensory bowls available for smelling. The aromatics chosen are specifically related to the typical aroma that can be expected from each cultivar. For example, for Sauvignon Blanc, one of the bowls will contain green pepper. The participant will be encouraged to smell the bowl and actively think of the sensory sensation, creating a memory bank of cultivar associations. The origin of these aromas and different wine styles will be discussed. 

Matching up the wine

After familiarising themselves with the associated aromas, the standard tasting procedure will be explained, and the participants can now smell and taste the wine samples and attempt to identify aromatics inherent in the wine.

For those that prefer not to drink wine, can either spit out the wine using the spittoons provided or opt to only smell the wine (no tasting).

The wine challenge

After the informal tasting, there will be a wine challenge for those that would like to participate. The winner will receive a prize!

Socializing and networking

Participants are free to taste the wines again and to enjoy the wine while socializing and networking. Catering options are available on request.

This is probably my favourite tasting as you get to experience the cream of the crop all originating from one specific cultivar during an interactive and fun tasting.

A brief overview of the cultivar is given after which the person/groups receive a set of aromatic description cards which they pair with a specific wine according to the flavour composition. This is a perfect way to learn more about a specific cultivar and to explore the versatility that winegrowing regions and winemaking processes can lend to a wine...all the while tasting the very best award-winning wines.

Who doesn’t love a food and wine pairing? Various options are available for this tasting from cheeses to confectionary, rosé to bubbles. Keep it basic, fun and interactive and explore what is pairable and what is not. You might be surprised!

This tasting gives you an overview of the South African wine growing regions and the popular and local cultivars grown. Get to know South African wines and what makes our industry special.

Whether you are a true lover of wine or just want to learn more about wine flavour, being able to recognise select aromas is key! For the professionals, flavour recognition is a skill that came with tasting many wines, something which unfortunately not all of us were exposed to during our lifetime.

The flavour recognition wine tasting is a fun and interactive wine tasting aimed at exposing you to the basic flavours and sensations of wine using simple examples. Filing these aromas in your memory bank will help you to identify the aromas in future tastings.

A simple and fun challenge at the end of the flavour recognition training will leave you more confident in your ability to identify specific flavours and pinpoint those aromas that you often cannot assign a name to.

What does it mean for a wine to be corked? What does is smell like when a wine is oxidised or over aged (or both!)? Is it normal for a wine to smell leathery or sweaty? No one likes to drink bad wine, but it is even worse if you do not know what is wrong with the wine and why it is considered faulty.

In the faulty wines tasting you can learn about all the common wine faults, how to identify them and when a wine is considered unacceptable. Faulty wines are compared with clean wines to clearly highlight the faulty characteristics. A simple challenge at the end of the tasting will test your abilities to identify faulty wines and leave you confident to return a bottle at a restaurant next time you come across one of these faults.

With consumers growing more and more health conscious, the production of low alcohol wines is becoming a necessity. Various low alcohol wines are already on the shelves; however the selection is slim pickings and getting a low alcohol wine that is satisfying on the palate can be a challenge.

In this tasting, a selection of low alcohol wines is tasted and compared to identify wines that can suit your preference, saving you the time and effort of finding that ideal low alcohol wine.