Most wine tastings ask you to sit back and listen. This one hands you the glassware and lets you make the decisions.
On a wine farm on the edge of Stellenbosch, in a room beside the river, you step into the role of the winemaker. In front of you are several single wines, each made from one grape. On their own, every one of them has something missing. One has plenty of fruit but no backbone. Another is firm and serious but a little closed. A third brings perfume and spice. The winemaker’s skill lies in knowing how much of each to put together so the whole becomes better than its parts.
That is what you will do. You taste each component, measure, mix, taste again and adjust, until you have a wine that is entirely your own. Then you give it a name and design its label. It is great fun, you learn more about wine in an afternoon than most people do in years, and it brings a group together like nothing else.
John Sparks
The whole is greater than its parts
Many of the world’s great wines are blends. In Bordeaux, Cabernet Sauvignon gives structure and length, Merlot softens it with plum and roundness, and a little Cabernet Franc or Petit Verdot adds lift and colour. In the Rhône, Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre are woven together. The Cape has its own tradition too: the Cape Blend, built around Pinotage, South Africa’s own grape.
Blending is how a winemaker finds balance. It lets them soften hard edges, add depth where a wine feels thin, and bring together fruit, acidity, tannin and texture. Every vintage is different, so every year the winemaker sits down with the components and starts again. It is part science, and a large part art.
An afternoon as winemaker
The basics
We begin with a short, relaxed introduction to blending: what each grape brings, and how balance, structure and character are built in a glass.
Taste the components
You taste each single wine on its own and make notes. What do you like? What is missing?
Make your blend
With measuring cylinders and a little patience, you try different proportions until the wine in your glass tastes exactly the way you want it.
Name it and design the label
Every wine needs a name. You design your own label, and this is often where the laughter really starts.
Compare and toast
We taste each other’s wines, compare notes and raise a glass to the best winemakers in the room.
Good to understand before you start
Balance
A good wine is one where nothing shouts. Fruit, acidity, tannin and alcohol all sit in harmony. Blending is the winemaker’s main tool to get there.
Structure
Tannin, mostly from the grape skins and the oak, gives a red wine its grip and backbone, and helps it age. Too little and the wine feels flat; too much and it feels hard.
Character
This is the personality of the wine: its aromas, its flavours and how long it stays with you after you swallow. A small splash of the right grape can change it completely.
Art in the room
The room is hung with contemporary art, and the idea behind the session is the same as behind a good painting: separate elements brought together into something balanced and expressive. Some of the wines and artworks can be bought on the day.
You arrive as guests. You leave as winemakers.
Before you go
Where
On a wine farm just outside Stellenbosch, about forty minutes from Cape Town and an easy drive from the rest of the Winelands.
Who it suits
Groups of 10 to 30: families, friends, celebrations and teams. It is ideal when a group travelling together wants to do something side by side rather than simply sit and be served.
Book ahead
The session is by booking only. We arrange it for your group and fit it into your day in the Winelands.
Experience
None needed. Wine lovers and complete beginners enjoy it equally, and often the beginners make the best wine.
Getting there
We drive you there and back, so everyone in the group can taste freely.
Pairs well with
Lunch at Tokara on the Helshoogte Pass, a visit to Rustenberg in Ida’s Valley, and an afternoon at Boschendal.
