South Africa is our speciality — the deepest and most personal part of our range — so this is the one we most want you to know inside out. Happily, the best place to learn it is free. The WOSA Online Wine Course, run by Wines of South Africa (the country’s official generic body), is a complete Level 1 to Level 2 programme that costs nothing and ends in a certificate.

This isn’t a marketing microsite or a hobbyist blog. WOSA is the organisation that represents every South African producer abroad, teaching you directly from the source — the most accurate, up-to-date picture of the Cape you’ll find anywhere, broken into bite-sized modules you can work through at your own pace.

From curious to certified

The course is built as a ladder. Level 1 grounds you in the essentials — the history, the climate, the major regions from Stellenbosch to the cool Cape South Coast, and the grapes that built the Cape’s reputation. Level 2 goes deeper into terroir, viticulture and the styles that have put South Africa among the wine world’s most exciting countries. Six modules in all, each with a quiz, and a certificate awarded on completion.

Everything is self-paced and online. You simply register a free account with Wines of South Africa and begin with Level 1.

The wines to taste as you learn

Reading about Stellenbosch Cabernet, old-vine Swartland Chenin or a cool-climate Hemel-en-Aarde Pinot only gets you so far — the lesson lands when the glasses are in front of you. South Africa is where our range runs deepest, so there’s a bottle for every module. Here are our newest Cape arrivals to taste alongside the course.