Modular by Design - How Afro Wine Week is Opening the Doors to Global Opportunity

In the world of wine and business, access has often been a closed circle, guarded by rigid structures, legacy networks, and outdated assumptions about who belongs at the table. Afro Wine Week is reimagining the entire table. As one of the continent’s most compelling new cultural and investment summits happening this September, it showcases Black excellence in wine and is architecting a space for meaningful connections, investment, and innovation.

Afro Wine Week is taking an intentional step forward with a modular programming approach, a dynamic design that invites both local and international participants to build their experience based on their goals, availability, and interests. From immersive tastings to investor matchmaking and think tanks, the summit has been curated like a playlist: choose the tracks that move you.

“As part of creating opportunities for both local and international investors and participants, we’ve opened up the programming with an innovative modular approach,” says Tuanni Price, co-founder of Afro Wine Week and founder of Zuri Wine Tasting. “Whether you're here to discover new wines, source product for export, or build cross-continental partnerships, this is about giving you the power to build your experience to maximise your objective.”

A key feature of this year’s experience is the built-in access to CapeWine, Africa’s largest and most influential wine trade fair. Through this unique partnership, Afro Wine Week attendees gain an unprecedented opportunity to engage with producers from across South Africa, explore new markets, and get a firsthand view of the industry’s scale and potential. For those aspiring to launch their wine brands or expand their business footprint, it’s a platform where passion meets profit, and purpose meets possibility.

This isn’t just a wine event, it’s an economic catalyst. The week-long celebration is designed to bridge the gap between industry and culture, featuring experiences that span the Cape Winelands to discovering black-owned restaurants in the heart of the city, culminating in a flagship summit. The summit is hosted with support from Wesgro, the official tourism, trade, and investment promotion agency for the Western Cape.

“It’s jam-packed,” says Carol Burns, co-founder of Afro Wine Week. “We’re thrilled to have support from Wesgro and to host our summit day in their world-class facilities in the heart of Cape Town. As we get closer to the summit, we are refining our platform, which is meant to forge connections and create business opportunities, ones that live on long after the final pour.”

Whether you're a first-time wine entrepreneur, a seasoned sommelier, or a buyer seeking the next cult label, the programming offers multiple points of entry. Think cultural panels on wine and identity, and exclusive tasting journeys guided by Black winemakers. The format is fluid, designed to meet attendees where they are and take them further.

This approach also reflects a growing demand for intentionality in how events serve diverse communities, beyond through representation, but also infrastructure. “We know time, cost, and access are real barriers,” says Price. “This format is built with that in mind. You don’t have to do everything. You can do what matters most to you, and still be part of the movement.”

Afro Wine Week’s ethos is as much about the future as it is about the glass. Rooted in heritage, but unapologetically forward-thinking, it’s about shaping global narratives around African wine, entrepreneurship, and cultural capital. And with its modular format, it invites the world to participate in a way that’s flexible, inclusive, and strategic.

Because the future of wine isn’t just about what’s in the bottle, it’s about who gets to make, taste, sell, and shape it.