Team building with a blind wine tasting: no venue to book, no facilitator

1. Why a blind tasting works for a team

Plenty of team builds ask people to be bad at something in front of colleagues. This one asks them to drink wine and argue about it. Hiding the labels does the rest: with no name and no price to anchor on, everyone is guessing, and the wine buff’s head start disappears.

It gets people talking. Each wine is a round: taste, argue, lock in a guess, then the reveal. The arguing is half the fun. It is also competitive enough to matter: the player with the most correct answers at the reveal wins, and the bragging rights last until the next one.

“Loved playing the game. Not a big wine drinker, but so enjoyed it.”

2. How the hour runs

1. Everyone joins the game on their own phone with the code on the join card. There is no app to download.
2. One of you is the gamemaster: pours each mystery wine, keeps the pace and plays along. The bottles are sealed, so the gamemaster is guessing too.
3. Taste, argue, guess. The game asks about colour, smell, taste, grape, vintage, region and price, and every answer locks before the reveal.
4. Reveal one bottle at a time. The player with the most correct answers at the end wins.

Each bottle is a round of about 20 minutes. The Discovery Box has two wines, roughly 45 minutes; the Premium and Reserve boxes have three, closer to an hour. The gamemaster sets the speed, so it fits a long lunch or the last hour of a Friday.

3. What to set up at the office

Glasses from the kitchen and a phone each. That is the list. The box brings the rest: sealed, numbered mystery wines, scorecards, the join card, tasting prompts and access to the game. Nothing else to buy.

Chill the whites for 20 to 30 minutes before you start; reds are best just below room temperature. One glass per person is fine, with water between wines. A tasting pour is small, which is how one bottle stretches to around 15 people.

If the team fills more than one table, give each table its own box and its own gamemaster and pour the same wines at the same time. The reveals land together, and so does the noise.

4. How many boxes does a team need?

One box hosts up to 15 tasters. Beyond that, add a box per table:

For larger groups we pair boxes. Get in touch with your head count and the date and we will sort out team pricing.

5. What it costs per head

That is the box only. Delivery is R65 across South Africa and free on orders over R600, which any two boxes clear.

For comparison, the sommelier-led corporate tastings we checked in Cape Town are priced per person, from around R500 a head, with a minimum group size and a venue to get everyone to. A venue tasting is a lovely outing. It is also a date the whole team has to make, a booking and transport. The box comes to the office.

6. Make it an event

Pair it with lunch or the end-of-quarter drinks. Put something on it: the winner picks the next team lunch. Use it to close an offsite. And because the wines are South African, the reveal doubles as a crash course in what the country makes, without any of the snobbery.