Blind tasting isn’t a party trick. It’s the best way to sharpen your palate and remove label bias. Eight lessons teach a repeatable method, then show you how to practise it.
🔓 How to unlock this level
Level 4 opens at 5,000 Vine Points, with all Level 3 certificates and 10 GPS-verified farm visits.
What you’ll learn
The deductive grid
A step-by-step method for every glass.
Sight clues
What colour and viscosity reveal.
Nose and palate
Fruit, oak and structure markers.
Climate and age
Cool or warm? Young or mature?
Cape benchmarks
Recognising South African classics blind.
Who it’s for
Level 4 learners who want to taste like a professional and earn the right to call themselves Vine Masters.
🚗 Responsible enjoyment
This course is for adults of legal drinking age (18+ in South Africa). Please enjoy wine responsibly.
Curriculum
- 3 Sections
- 9 Lessons
- 2 Weeks
- Blind Tasting Mastery: LessonsLearn the deductive method professionals use to identify a wine's grape, origin and age without seeing the label.8
- Test Your KnowledgeFinish the course by passing the quiz.1
- Your Certificate1
Instructor
Marthunis J Barnard is the founder of Cape Vine Master, a learning platform built to make Cape wine approachable for everyone. A self-confessed wine amateur rather than a trained sommelier, Marthunis started the project out of a simple belief: South African wine deserves to be back on the map, and you shouldn’t need a fancy vocabulary or a cellar full of bottles to enjoy it.
As a content creator and wine course designer, he turns what he learns on the wine routes of the Western Cape into clear, friendly courses, from how to taste a glass of wine to exploring Stellenbosch, Franschhoek and beyond. Through Cape Vine Master’s courses and its Wine Passport, he invites learners to taste, explore and visit the farms themselves, growing from curious beginner to Vine Master one step at a time.
