The WineX Passport goes digital with a personal AI wine guide
The WineX Passport has gone digital, opening a new conversation on the tasting floor. At this
year’s Standard Bank Private WineX, visitors will be able to chat to an AI guide that helps them find
the producer they came to see, discover one they have yet to encounter and understand more
about the wine in their glass.
Called Smart Event Guide, the new experience launches at Sandton Convention Centre from 28 to
30 October 2026. With 120 exhibitors and 700 wines at WineX, it offers a way to explore the show
around personal tastes and interests, with guidance on where to go as those interests develop.
Developed by Cape Town-based technology company Smart Operator, the guide brings the
show’s floor plan, producer information, wine regions and varieties into a conversation on a visitor’s
phone. Recommendations draw on flavour preferences, curiosity and budget, connecting wines
that might appeal with the tables where visitors can explore them.
“Tell it what you love, or what you’re curious about, and it plots your way through,” says Fasie
Malherbe, CEO of Smart Operator. “Every tasting teaches it more about you, so the further you go,
the sharper the recommendations get.”
A visitor who enjoys lighter reds, for example, can ask where to explore that preference. Someone
curious about an unfamiliar variety can ask which producers to seek out. As visitors tell the guide
what they have tasted and enjoyed, it can refine its recommendations, allowing a favourite at one
table to become the starting point for a discovery at another.
Once a wine is poured, the guide can help visitors explore it in more detail. Guided tasting prompts
explain what to look for in the glass and suggest questions to ask the winemaker. Visitors can ask
about wine terminology or seek context for what they are tasting, building their understanding while
the wine and its producer are right there.
“Smart Event Guide is designed so you can put your phone away,” Malherbe explains. “Every
recommendation points you toward a person: a winemaker to meet, a question to ask them, a
wine to share.”
Those brief exchanges give visitors a little background and a question to take to the next table,
while leaving plenty of room for the conversation to take its own course. The guide helps someone
decide where to go; the encounter with the producer gives them the opportunity to explore what
makes that wine worth knowing.
For producers, this offers another way to be discovered. Their stories, ranges and heritage sit
alongside practical information about where to find them, helping visitors connect a wine
recommendation with the people behind it. This can draw attention to a producer a guest might
otherwise have passed on the way to a familiar name.
Visitors can also log wines they enjoy as they move through the show, keeping their discoveries
together in the guide. Smart Operator says personal details are not sold or shared with producers,
and that organisers and exhibitors receive anonymised, aggregated insights into visitor interests.
The educational element continues through Cape Wine Academy, Smart Operator’s founding
learning partner. Every WineX visitor is offered a complimentary introductory wine course through
Smart Operator, with enrolment available at the show. It gives people who discover an interest in
wine a practical next step, and those already exploring the subject an opportunity to keep learning.
Getting started is straightforward: visitors scan the QR code at the entrance, download the app
and complete a simple sign-up. Access to Smart Event Guide is included with their WineX ticket.
At WineX, the guide’s recommendations are designed to end at a table, where visitors can taste
the wine for themselves and hear its story from the people who know it.
Standard Bank Private WineX takes place at Sandton Convention Centre from 28 to 30 October
2026, from 17h00 to 21h00 each evening. (*Wednesday evening is invite only)
For event information and tickets, visit www.winex.co.za.
