Help Us Get 1,500 South Australians Tasting Blind.
You took a look — thank you. So, straight up: the League doesn't turn a profit, so we're not selling "sponsorship". There are three ways you could help — and most cost nothing. It's all here, in the open: what we're asking, what we'll do with it, and where we want to take it.
No profit, no sponsorship sell. Pick whatever suits — a free introduction, some wine or kit, or a cash line. Each one's spelled out in full further down.
Got no budget?
Reach & a Name Drop
Your network, a few minutes
The most valuable thing you can give — and it's free.
Wine has an apathy problem — and a negativity problem. The League is our pushback: blind tasting made curious, social and genuinely fun to watch. That's the real reason to back it — not exposure, but helping build something the category needs. Done at scale, with ambition, it becomes significant— so we're after backers who measure return in years, not months.
What it is
A Blind-Tasting Competition, Built for Spectators.
Wine in black glasses. A room guesses the variety, region and vintage on their phones; a live ladder ranks them in real time; we film the whole thing. Five Regional Cups across SA build to a $5,000 Grand Final.
How it works
Tasting, as a Spectator Sport.
Players earn ladder points all year — in-venue, at pop-ups, across five regional cups — and the top 24 fight it out in the Grand Final.
The Grand Final
Top 24 scorers · $5,000 · 5 Dec 2026
The Majors
Five Regional Cups — Adelaide Hills, Barossa, Clare, McLaren Vale, Coonawarra
League-Sanctioned Pop-Ups
Sanctioned events & mystery pours around the state
In-Venue Flights
Score 5/5 at the bar to climb the ladder
Points climb the pyramid all season ↑
The audience
Who's in the Room & Who's Watching.
Audience size is the overdone story — the ages are the real one. Wine keeps losing younger drinkers; we're engaging them. Nearly 6 in 10 of our viewers are under 45, and more than a quarter are 25–34 — and they keep coming back.
58%
of viewers are under 45 — the drinkers wine keeps losing
27%
are 25–34 — younger than wine usually reaches
66%
of views come from outside Australia
128k
hours watched in the last year
In the room
A Qualified Crowd
Across every end of the trade — winemakers, sommeliers, buyers and retailers — beside wine educators and ambassadors, and curious newcomers who don't work in wine at all. They're here to guess, learn and connect with what's in the glass.
Watching
Younger Than Wine Expects
18.5K subscribers and 3.03M lifetime views, 1,109 episodes deep. The age curve is the prize: nearly 6 in 10 are under 45 and more than a quarter are 25–34 — exactly the drinkers the category struggles to reach. Globally spread, too: the US, UK, South Africa, Canada and Argentina as much as home.
Reach only counts when the audience is qualified and the engagement is real — and it compounds as the League scales. · YouTube Analytics, 12 months to Jun 2026.
The plan & the number
Fully Backed, the 2026 Build Is About $150,000.
That's the ceiling — the ideal season, every line sponsored and the show on its feet. We can run a strong pilot on far less; this just shows what's already in, and where every dollar goes.
~$150k
the build, fully resourced
$15k
already in — glassware + the purse
100%
of it acquitted in a season report
Where it goes
Kit & transport
$48k
Rigging, trusses and road cases — plus the cameras, screens, PA and lighting inside them.
Crew, travel & stays
$24k
Four crew a cup, accommodation, the van and the fuel across five regions.
Production & tech
$23k
Editing, photography, filming, and the live-app + data build.
Wine & glassware
$20k
Pour wine for five cups, plus Riedel glassware (covered).
Prizes
$10k
The $5,000 Grand Final purse plus regional-cup podiums.
Operations & buffer
$25k
Insurance, venue hire, marketing, permits, software — and a ~10% contingency.
Glassware ($10k, Riedel) and the $5k Grand Final purse are already covered. Every other line is one you can back — and we acquit all of it with a season report.
The 2026 Season · On the Road
1Clare Valley· Clare Cup11 Jul
2Adelaide Hills· Adelaide Hills Cup22 Aug
3Barossa Valley· Barossa Bowl19 Sep
4Coonawarra· Coonawarra Cup24 Oct
5McLaren Vale· McLaren Vale Cup14 Nov
★Grand Final· Gumeracha · top 24 · $5,0005 Dec
Where We're Going
This Is a Five-Region Pilot. Not the Finish Line.
2026 is the pilot — a proof of concept across five South Australian regions, not the destination. Here's where we want to take it: Victoria, then the whole country, then the screen. Back us now and you're in before the borders open.
2026South Australia— Five Regional Cups and a Grand Final — the pilot.
2027Victoria— Take the format across the border.
2028Australia-wide— A national blind-tasting league.
2029+Worldwide— Broadcast and streamed — watched around the world.
The detail
Everything Above, Spelled Out.
The specifics of each way to help — plus who's building this, the track record, and why we think it works. Dig in if it's useful; if not, jump to the conversation.
No budget · Reach
The Most Valuable Thing You Can Give Isn't Money.
One door, opened by the right person, beats a cheque — and costs you nothing but goodwill.
Send It to Your List
A cellar door or association emailing its members is our single biggest discovery lever.
Co-Promote to Your Audience
Your ambassadors and the tasters in your orbit, pointed at a format built for people who already love wine.
A Warm Introduction
A writer, a sommelier, a venue, a backer — a warm intro opens a door a cold email won't.
A Follow & a Share
Puts us in front of an audience we can't buy our way to.
Host a League-Sanctioned Event
Run a regional-cup-style night at your venue — we bring the format, the glasses and the crowd.
Easiest no-cost backing · print a poster
Put One Up at Your Cellar Door, Venue or Workplace.
Print-ready, on-brand and completely free. Every poster carries a QR code straight to the palate-profile sign-up — so a guest can join the League right where they're standing. Print one on an office A4, pin it up, done. The lowest-effort way there is to back the League.
A bottle does one of two jobs — and they're not interchangeable. Tell us which.
Job one
To Pour — Played Blind
Goes into the competition, so it must be classic and representative of its region — players are guessing the variety and where it's from.
6+ bottles of one label → fills a first-round bracket, so the most people possible get to play.
Single or aged bottles → the knockout and final rounds, where older wine really shines.
Job two
To Award — Won as a Prize
Becomes a prize on a podium — never poured into the competition. It's what a player walks away with.
A marquee bottle ($500+) → the Grand Final podium — the top prize of the season.
A cup-worthy bottle → a Regional Cup podium.
A 3-bottle tasting pack → your whole range, won in a single prize.
A novel one · sponsor the tiebreaker
Put up a vertical of one hallmark wine across vintages and it becomes the tiebreaker: players guess the vintage. Named on screen as yours, with the rest poured by the glass to spectators — your wine, showcased and shifting.
Wine, gear, hours or a venue — whatever you've got to give is real help in its own right.
Marketing budget · Fund a line
Don't Buy a Logo. Ask "What Does $X Buy?"
Every line is real kit — more people in the room, on screen, and on the road. You'll know exactly where it went.
$400
An extra camera operator, for a cup
Another angle on a match, so it plays harder to watch — more content for everyone.
$1,300
A region's accommodation
Puts crew on the ground where it's remote — Coonawarra, Clare and beyond.
$1,500
Stage and camera lighting
A dim cellar door still reads like a broadcast on camera.
$1,800
Wireless mics and clean capture
The host's calls and the wine reveals, caught for the room and the channel.
$2,000
A vision switcher
Cuts every camera into one live show, on the screen and the stream.
$2,200
Connectivity that holds
A room full of phones competes live in the regions without dropping out.
$2,500
A screen, truss and the structure that holds it
The live ladder and the wine reveals, up on the wall for the whole room.
$3,000
A camera
An extra angle we run every leg — more for new viewers to get hooked on.
$3,500
A PA upgrade
The host runs the night and every seat hears the calls.
$10,500
The full roadie kit
Flight cases, racks, rigging and straps — the whole show protected and moving fast. If you fund one thing, fund this.
We'll tailor any line to what works for you.
The Prize Pools
What each placing is worth. Fill a slot with cash, or with a wine to award — same value, your call.
Grand Final · one, end of season
1st$5,000cash
2nd$1,000–2,000cash or a prize
3rd$500–1,000cash or a prize
The $5,000 first prize is already up — put up by Bottle Shock. Second and third are open to back.
Regional Cup · five across the year
1st$300–500per cup
2nd$200–300per cup
3rd$100–200per cup
What backing looks like
A Long Game, Not a Logo Grab.
Yes, there's real exposure here — an engaged audience, your wine on every published tasting list, your name on a cup's tiebreaker. But raw exposure is the overdone story. You can't sponsor independent media; you can back the sport it's building — on the ground floor, for a return measured in years, not months.
How You Show Up
Your wine on the published tasting list for every cup it's poured at — featured, not buried
Poured to be identified and connected with on camera — explored, never scored or ranked
A cup's tiebreaker presented by you — named to the room and on screen
Co-promotion to your audience, and the option to host a league-sanctioned event
The Long Game
On the ground floor of a new wine sport — return measured in years, not months
Named on a permanent Founding Backers wall
First call, and first right of refusal, as the League grows reach
A direct line to the team building it — not an account manager
A season report that acquits every dollar you put in
No margin you're padding, and we acquit every dollar. Want your name on the screen or the cup you bought? Happily — as a thank-you, not a transaction.
Who's building it
You're Backing This Team.
Bottle Shock — a YouTube channel, a bar and now a league. Born in SA, watched worldwide. Same crew, six years in.
Brendan Carter
Founder · Winemaker · MW student
Noah Ward
DipWSET · Wine professional
Henry Doyle
The wine drinker · the energy
B Corp CertifiedGreat Wine Capitals 2026 — Regional Winner15+ years in wineFounders of Unico Zelo & Applewood
The track record
From a Lockdown Livestream to a Sport.
2020
A daily lockdown livestream
200 episodes in a row, from a winery in the Adelaide Hills.
01 / 05
2021
We get a studio
The audience wouldn't let us stop, so we leased a city studio.
02 / 05
2023
Back to the winery
Pay a lease or buy wine? We chose the wine.
03 / 05
2025
Bottle Shock the Bar
Our own blind-tasting venue — 150+ wines by the glass.
04 / 05
2026
The Big Blind League
Tasting goes competitive. Wine, but make it sport.
05 / 05
Why bet on us
We Out-Punch the Giants on Discoverability.
Subscriber-to-view ratio — how far our content travels beyond our own audience. You're not buying our subscriber count; you're buying reach with meaning.
Bottle Shock
105.5%
Napa Valley Wine Academy
91.4%
Konstantin Baum
48.1%
Wine Folly
10.8%
What's in the way
Three Things Stand Between Us and 1,500 Players.
Knock one down and you've moved us forward. Crack all three and we've got a platform.
01
Logistics
Five regions, some remote. Travel, crew, accommodation — and a kit that survives the drive.
02
Discovery
Most people don't know we exist yet. Getting the regions, the media and new crowds on board.
03
Tech
Cameras, AV, connectivity that holds — and software that survives a room of phones playing live.
The fine print, honestly
Independence Is the Product.
Wines are poured to be identified and connected with— explored on their merits, never scored or ranked. The host winery never competes and is never reviewed, even when we take a brand's wine or money. We publish the full tasting list for every cup, and a backer's wines feature on it. Riedel holds glassware; otherwise no blanket category exclusivity (we police it within reason) and never exclusive wine access. 18+, SA, enjoyed responsibly — DrinkWise.org.au.
Already on board
The Brands Backing the League.
Our Industry Partners have made Season One possible. From glassware, to wine, to beer, to venues, every one put something real in, turning our dream into a tangible reality for our wine community.
Major Sponsors
Riedel · Glassware
Unico Zelo
Venue Sponsors
Knappstein
Simon Tolley
The Barossa Cellar
Bellwether
Angove
Wine Sponsors
Pikes
Jim Barry
Whistler
Langmeil
Penfolds
David Ridge Wines
Beer Sponsors
Pikes Beer Co.
Lobethal Bierhaus
Marketing Sponsors
Clare Valley Wine, Food & Tourism Centre
Adelaide Hills Tourism
Adelaide Hills Wine Region
Industry validation
Their Words, Not Ours.
“
Sharp, curious, and deeply engaged with wine in a way that feels honest and grounded. No noise, no ego.
Rajat Parr
Winemaker & author
“
Brendan is an emerging force within the wine media — reaching into places where the wine trade needs to engage.
Andrew Caillard MW
Master of Wine
“
Exactly the sort of energetic jolt the Australian wine industry needs.
David Sly
Wine writer
Say yes
Tell Us What You've Got.
Reach, wine, kit or cash — tell us roughly what you can put in, and we'll find the right home for it. Money runs on an invoice; in-kind and services on a short, co-signed agreement. Every dollar is acquitted with an end-of-season report.
The Big Blind League is operated by Ochre Nation Pty Ltd, trading as Bottle Shock · ABN 38 165 945 095 Talk to Brendan Carter, Founder & Director · +61 415 660 290 · cheers@bottleshock.tv
Before you pour in.
Are you old enough to pop a cork and swirl a decanter? You'll need to be 18 or over to come in.
18+ · SA · Please drink responsibly
Catch you in a few years.
You need to be 18 or over to come in. We'll be here when you are.
