About Napa Valley Wine Academy

Premier, not pretentious.

Six students, one borrowed kitchen, and a rule we have never broken: put the student at the center of everything. Fifteen years and 53,530 students later, this is who we are, who will teach you, and what you can check for yourself.

  • Founders, faculty and support team, all named
  • Facts you can verify, not claims you have to take on trust
Meet the peopleFind your level

WSET Global Wine Educator
of the Year, 2016 & 2019

WSET Approved Programme Provider
and Diploma centre

Founded in Napa, 2011.
Still run by the people who founded it.

Origin

Why does this school exist?

Because too much of wine education was built for the person at the front of the room. We had sat in those classes. The instructor's reputation came first, the school's revenue came second, and the student's result landed somewhere after that. We wanted a school that reversed the order.

So in 2012, Christian Oggenfuss, Catherine Bugué and Jürg Oggenfuss rented the Whole Foods test kitchen in Napa, set six glasses at six places and taught their first WSET class. The bet was simple: if we are invested in your success, ours will follow.

Eight months later, classes were selling out faster than three people could run enrollment, materials and exams, and the Academy made its first full-time hire. Not a salesperson. Someone whose whole job was looking after students. That has been the pattern ever since: when we grow, the first investment goes to the people who support you.

Today we teach in person in Napa, Nashville, Tampa and Los Angeles, and online to students around the world. The classrooms have changed many times. The reason for them has not.

An early Napa Valley Wine Academy class at St. Supéry Winery, with co-founders Catherine Bugué, Jürg Oggenfuss and Christian Oggenfuss standing at the front
An early class at St. Supéry Winery, where the Academy rented a room in its first years. Standing: Catherine Bugué, Jürg Oggenfuss and Christian Oggenfuss.
We thought six students a class was going to be normal.

Christian Oggenfuss, co-founder

Founder

A note from Christian

Christian Oggenfuss holding a wine glass as a swirl of red wine arcs through the air

"When we opened, I thought six students a class was the ceiling. What I did not expect was how quickly people respond to a school that is simply on their side. We never set out to be the biggest wine school. We set out to be the one where you are known by name, where your instructor answers the email you send on a Sunday, and where passing the exam is the start of our relationship, not the end of it.

That is still the promise. Choose to study with us and we are invested in your outcome. Hold us to it."

Christian Oggenfuss
Christian Oggenfuss, DipWSET · Co-founder and CEO
Known by name, not by order number.

Student-first

What does student-first actually mean?

Every school says it. Here is what it looks like on a Tuesday night, and what you can check before you enroll.

A team whose only job is you

From enrollment to certificate, the Student Success Team handles materials, scheduling and exam registration, and answers the questions you did not know to ask. First response in under 24 hours on business days.

Taught by people trained to teach

Expertise gets you hired here. Teaching gets you in front of a class. Every instructor is trained in our teaching standards, because knowing wine and teaching wine are different skills.

Your instructor, outside class hours

Questions do not keep office hours, so neither do we. Instructors are reachable between sessions and inside the online course. Diploma students get open office hours twice a week with the Diploma Director.

A community that outlasts the exam

Passing is not goodbye. Every course has its own discussion space, and Premier Crew™ keeps the cohort together afterward with monthly tastings and study tools.

Values

What do we hold ourselves to?

Six values. They are written on the wall and used in the room. One sits above the rest; the other five describe how we live it.

Put the student at the center of everything we do

Every decision, from how a course is built to how fast you get a reply on a Friday night, starts with one question: what is best for the student?

Own your success

We take responsibility for outcomes, ours and yours. We ask the same of everyone who works here, and we will ask it of you.

Deliver an amazing experience

Competent is the floor. Every class, every email and every exam day should feel considered.

We are a team

Instructors, support staff, exam officers and founders: one group with one goal, which is you walking out with the result you came for.

Maintain a positive focus

Wine is a joy before it is a syllabus. We keep it that way, exam day included.

Have passion for your work

The people teaching you chose this life. You will feel it in the first ten minutes.

If a decision fails the first value, the other five do not get a vote.

Students

Who studies here?

People who share a love of wine and very little else. Four kinds of student fill our classrooms, and we ask each of them the same first question: where do you want this to take you?

The professional moving up

Sommeliers, buyers, distributors, winery and hospitality teams who need a credential that carries weight and knowledge that holds up on the floor on a Saturday night.

The career changer

Doctors, lawyers, executives, software engineers, nurses. People who have decided to build a second career in the industry they love. They arrive with discipline and no network. We supply the structure and the introductions.

The passionate enthusiast

You want to know what is in the glass, order without second-guessing and build a cellar with intent. No career plan required. Curiosity is enough.

The future educator

You want to teach wine yourself. Our Professional Wine Educator (PWE) program is where you learn how, from people who do it every week.

Napa

Why does Napa matter?

Because we are headquartered in the heart of the American wine industry, and that changes what we can give you. Winemakers, growers and industry leaders are neighbors here, not guest speakers flown in once a year. Their access becomes your access: introductions for students building careers, and experiences no slide deck can replace, like the WSET Harvest Bootcamp, where you study in the middle of a working harvest.

In person

Napa, Nashville, Tampa and Los Angeles, with the wines poured in front of you. Napa is home.

Online, worldwide

On a learning platform we built ourselves, so a student several time zones away gets the same instruction and the same support as the one in the room in Napa.

Same faculty, same team

Whichever format you choose, the instructors and the Student Success Team are the same people.

One foot in the classroom, the other in the vineyard.

People

Who runs it?

The founders who taught that first class still run the school. The faculty prove we can teach; the support team proves we mean it. Every person below has a profile you can read before you enroll.

Founders and leadership

Christian Oggenfuss
Christian Oggenfuss
DipWSET
Co-founder, Partner and CEO
View profile →
Catherine Bugué
Catherine Bugué
DipWSET
Co-founder, Partner and VP of Education
View profile →
Amy Oggenfuss
Amy Oggenfuss
Partner and CFO
Jürg Oggenfuss
Jürg Oggenfuss
Co-founder, in memoriam

Jürg Oggenfuss co-founded the Academy in 2011 and shaped it through its first years. His conviction that the student comes first is the foundation we still build on.

The first full-time hire ran student logistics. Growth still goes there first.

Faculty and program leadership

Csilla Kato
Csilla Kato
DipWSET
Lead WSET Instructor
View profile →
Janet Casey
Janet Casey
DipWSET
Lead Instructional Designer and Instructor
View profile →
Noelle Hale
Noelle Hale
DipWSET
Director of Diploma
View profile →

Behind them stands a faculty of thirty WSET-certified instructors across every location and format, including four Masters of Wine, each trained in our teaching standards before they lead a class.

Meet the full faculty

Student support

Mirva
Director of Student Support
Aine
Exams Officer

The people who make sure nothing stands between you and your result.

Recognition

Who else trusts us?

We are a WSET Approved Programme Provider and a WSET Diploma centre, one of a small number in the United States. The awards below are the ones with a named body and a year attached. Anything that does not meet that bar is not on this page.

2016 and 2019

Riedel Trophy for WSET Educator of the Year, WSET Global. The only school to have won it twice.

2022

Best of Wine Tourism, Regional Winner, Wine Tourism Services. Great Wine Capitals.

2021

Best Wine Education Experience. Best of the North Bay.

2024

Wine Business Monthly named NVWA and its founders Wine Industry Leaders; Wine Industry Advisor listed Christian Oggenfuss among Wine's Most Inspiring People.

Scholarships

We fund places with Wine Unify, the Pink Boots Society and the United States Bartenders' Guild, because the industry gets better when more kinds of people can get in.

What students say

4.9 stars across 81 Google reviews. Our testimonials page collects what graduates have told us in their own words. Read them before you enroll; we would rather you hear it from a graduate than from us.

"Most awarded" is a claim. Two Riedel Trophies is a fact. We'd rather you check.

After the exam

What happens after you pass?

The certificate is a milestone, not a finish line. We built Premier Crew™, our membership community, so the learning does not stop when the exam does. Members stay connected to the Academy and to each other, keep their palates sharp with monthly practice, and keep learning in a way that fits around a life instead of interrupting one.

It is the clearest expression of what we believe: a school that is invested in your success stays invested after you pass.

Passing is where the relationship starts.

Graduates

In our students' words

"I did my WSET Level 1 with another provider, and the Level 2 with Napa Valley Wine Academy really set the bar much higher for quality of instruction, preparation of students, and interaction during a virtual class."

Heather Shannon WSET Level 2 graduate

"I had the distinct pleasure of learning that I had passed the WSET Level 3 certification with merit. The Harvest Class at the end of September was superb and a fantastic interactive learning experience."

Matthew Zarka WSET Level 3 graduate

"The academy brings in professionals at the top of the industry. I feel like NVWA has given me the confidence and education I need to take the next step, which for me is MW."

Carrie Britton WSET Diploma graduate

Start where you are

Pouring your first serious glass or preparing for the Diploma, there is a seat for you: in Napa, in a city near you, or online. Not sure which level? Take the two-minute check, or call and talk to a person who will tell you honestly whether to start lower or skip ahead.

Find your levelCall 855-513-WSET