Advanced Wine Studies

This is a programme where students will have the opportunity to increase their knowledge of wine to an advanced level, recognised internationally through the Cape Wine Academy. It includes three formal qualifications:

1. Preliminary Wine Course
2. Certificate Course in South African Wines
3. Diploma in Wine Studies

(including specialisation in Old World, New World and Global Wine Trends).
As such, this programme can be regarded as a true career booster, bringing the student from a very basic level to an expert level in wine studies.

From a broad industry perspective this programme aims at developing a more knowledgeable and informed manager. For too long, training for the industry has focussed extensively on broad based beverage training. Increasingly, top-end establishments are seeking staff with specialised knowledge.

The prior knowledge will primarily need to focus on enthusiasm as the programme starts at a ground level, but picks up quickly resulting in a high workload of highly specialised activities which are both theoretical and practical in nature.
The challenging area of this semester is whether one can actually develop a palate from a basic lay knowledge of wine to a more sophisticated analytical level in a relatively short period of time.

During this module, the objectives are to:

• Understand the history of wine.
• Apply storage and maturation principles for wine and brandy.
• Match wine with food.
• Analyse wine according to international wine tasting standards and score a wine
accordingly, including blind tasting.
• Understand the different wine varieties, their characteristics and their performance
factors.
• Understand viticulture and grape varieties.
• Understand the Wine of Origin scheme, regions, districts and wards and wine routes
in South Africa.
• Understand the different techniques involved in wine and brandy making and how
their application may influence the characteristics of a wine or brandy (viticulture).
• Understand how brandy and fortified wines are made and analyse brandy through
structured tasting.
• The production processes, styles, classifications, storage, and legal requirements
of sparkling wines.
• Understand world trends and influences in the wine industry.
• Analyse developments in the wine industry of the ‘old world’ and the ‘new world’.
• Tutor a professional wine tasting.
• Analyse the financial implications of wine production, distribution and sales.
• Apply effective strategies for the marketing of wine in production, distribution
and sales.
• Evaluate social and environmental impacts of wine production and distribution.