Professional Wine Educator Academy™ · Napa Valley Wine Academy
Become the wine educator people remember.
11 weeks online · Live on Zoom · In-person exam in Napa
An advanced training and mentorship program for wine professionals who want to teach with authority, clarity, confidence, and impact.
You won’t just learn how to present wine information. You’ll learn how to design powerful learning experiences, engage different types of students, teach tasting with purpose, and build your reputation as an industry-leading wine educator.
Included in the program
- 11-week online course with weekly live 2-hour classes over Zoom, and an in-person exam in Napa.
- Instruction by leading wine educators, including Peter Marks MW, Karen MacNeil, Catherine Bugue DWS, Christian Oggenfuss DWS, Janet Casey dipWSET, and other leaders in wine education.
- Practical training in classroom management, course design, presentation skills, teaching tasting technique, student engagement, educator authenticity, teaching to different levels and audiences, and business, marketing and social media pro tips.
- Peer practice, feedback, and coaching designed to sharpen your teaching style.
- A wine kit for instruction and practice sessions.
- A 3-month Professional Wine Educator Mastermind after graduation.
- Access to a growing community of serious wine educators.
Upon successful completion
Certificate and pin
The credential in hand — and something to wear on the floor.
A searchable listing on our website
Your profile as a Professional Wine Educator™, findable by anyone looking for one.
The educator community
A network of wine educators for referrals, collaboration, and advancing your career.
NVWA’s Approved Instructor List
Inclusion on the list we work from when teaching openings come up.
Wine knowledge is not enough. Great educators know how to teach.
Many wine professionals know wine. Far fewer know how to teach it in a way that is clear, memorable, inclusive, engaging, and transformative.
The Professional Wine Educator Academy™ was created for wine professionals who want to move beyond simply sharing information. This program helps you develop the tools, confidence, structure, and educator mindset needed to lead classes, tastings, trainings, and wine experiences at a professional level.
Whether you want to teach certification courses, lead consumer tastings, train hospitality teams, build your own wine education business, or become a more effective communicator, PWE gives you the framework and mentorship to stand out.
Our goal is simple: we don’t want you to just teach wine. We want you to be known as one of the best wine educators in the industry.
What makes the Professional Wine Educator Academy™ different
Six things you won’t find together anywhere else in wine education.
Built by award-winning wine educators
This is not a generic presentation-skills course. PWE was created by Napa Valley Wine Academy, one of the most recognized and awarded wine schools in the U.S., with more than a decade of experience teaching, mentoring, and building wine education programs.
Led by respected names in wine education
Students learn from an exceptional faculty that includes Peter Marks MW, Karen MacNeil, Catherine Bugue DWS, Christian Oggenfuss DWS, Janet Casey dipWSET, and additional industry leaders in education.
Focused on how people actually learn
You’ll explore how to structure classes, communicate complex wine concepts, teach tasting, design learning tools, manage different student levels and learning styles, manage the classroom and difficult situations, and create memorable educational experiences.
Practice, feedback, and refinement
PWE is not passive. You will practice teaching, receive feedback, refine your approach, and develop your own educator voice.
3 months of post-graduation mastermind support
After graduation, you continue with a 3-month PWE Mastermind designed to help you apply what you learned, stay accountable, troubleshoot challenges, discuss teaching opportunities, and continue growing with your educator community.
A community of educators
Graduates join a network of motivated wine educators who are building classes, businesses, events, content, and educational platforms across the industry.
What you’ll learn
A practical framework for teaching wine with confidence, structure, and student-centered impact.
How to teach tasting technique in a way that is practical, inclusive, and repeatable.
How to build stronger presentations and effective learning tools.
How to design wine classes, tastings, trainings, and workshops that students remember.
How to explain complex wine concepts with clarity and confidence; teaching theory.
Presentation skills beyond the basics: developing your voice, professional identity, and educator presence.
How to engage students with different knowledge and experience levels as well as learning styles.
Business tips and skills to turn wine education into a more visible and credible part of your career.
Social media tips and skills to grow your audiences.
How to manage a classroom, deal with issues, and be prepared: decades of experience shared.
Instructor engagement, learning checks, calling on students.
Practice teaching tasting technique and theory topics with personal feedback.
Learn from some of the most respected voices in wine education
PWE brings together experienced educators, credentialed wine professionals, instructional designers, and industry leaders who understand what it takes to teach wine at a high level.
Peter Marks
Master of Wine
Master of Wine and one of the most respected wine educators in the United States.
Karen MacNeil
Wine Educator & Author
Wine educator and industry leader with deep experience helping students connect with wine through clear, engaging instruction.
Catherine Bugue
DWS · VP of Education
Co-founder and VP of Education at Napa Valley Wine Academy. Catherine has helped shape NVWA’s education philosophy and program development.
Christian Oggenfuss
DWS · Founder & CEO
Founder of Napa Valley Wine Academy and a leading voice in wine education, business strategy, and professional educator development.
Janet Casey
dipWSET · Director of Curriculum
Instructional designer and wine educator focused on building effective, student-centered learning experiences.
Plus additional industry leaders in education who bring diverse perspectives on teaching, communication, business, and student engagement. Meet the full NVWA faculty →
3 months of PWE Mastermind
Your development does not stop when the course ends.
After graduation, every PWE student receives 3 months of access to the Professional Wine Educator Mastermind — a guided post-program experience designed to help you put your educator training into action.
Use this time to refine your teaching ideas, get feedback, share wins and challenges, learn from your peers, and continue building momentum as a professional wine educator.
- Turn your course experience into real-world teaching opportunities.
- Refine class concepts, tasting formats, workshops, and business ideas.
- Stay connected with your cohort and the broader PWE educator community.
- Receive continued support as you grow into your educator identity.
- Build confidence after graduation, when it matters most.
You leave not only with training, but with continued mentorship and a professional community behind you.
Is PWE right for you?
The Professional Wine Educator Academy™ is designed for wine professionals and serious wine students who want to become more effective, confident, and recognized educators.
WSET Level 3 graduates, Diploma candidates, sommeliers, wine scholars, and advanced wine students.
Wine professionals who want to teach classes, tastings, seminars, or staff trainings.
Retail, restaurant, distribution, winery, and hospitality professionals who train teams or consumers.
Educators who want to improve their teaching structure, presentation skills, and student engagement.
Entrepreneurs building wine education businesses, events, memberships, content, or consulting services.
Wine professionals who want to be seen as credible, polished, and industry-leading educators.
What you’ll walk away with
By the end of the Professional Wine Educator Academy™, you will have developed the skills, confidence, and professional identity to teach wine at a higher level.
A stronger educator presence.
A clearer teaching philosophy.
Practical tools for structuring wine classes and tastings.
Better methods for explaining complex wine concepts.
Stronger tasting instruction skills.
Experience presenting and receiving feedback.
Strategies for engaging students with different learning styles and experience levels.
A deeper understanding of instructional design for wine education.
Access to a community of ambitious wine educators.
3 months of post-graduation mastermind support.
The confidence to be known as an industry-leading wine educator.
Meet the educators building the future of wine education
PWE graduates are launching wine schools, leading tastings, training hospitality teams, creating content, building businesses, and bringing wine education to new audiences across the country and beyond. Their backgrounds are different, but they share one thing: they are using wine education to create impact.
Ellen Lainez
North York, Ontario
Certified Professional Wine Educator™Founder and director of Wine Consul, a Toronto-based education, events and consulting practice. Ellen trains hospitality staff internationally and recently launched a wine school in El Salvador.
Kelsey Daniels
Bend, Oregon
Certified Professional Wine Educator™Moved from 18 years in film and TV production into wine. Certified Sommelier, CSW, WSET Level 3 and Oregon Wine Expert — and co-owner of Flights Wine Bar, named Best Wine Bar in Central Oregon in 2024.
Darbi Invergo
Lodi, California
Certified Professional Wine Educator™Italian, French and Spanish Wine Scholar with highest honors, Champagne Specialist, and WSET Level 3 with distinction. Founder of the education blog A Grape Education.
Anna Gsanger
Memphis, Tennessee
Certified Professional Wine Educator™Wine educator and writer behind @SommethingFun. WSET Level 3, with degrees from Penn and Wharton and nearly 50 countries of travel informing how she teaches.
Caryn Schulberg
Sonoma, California
Certified Professional Wine Educator™WSET Level 3, CSW and Certified Specialist of Sherry Wines, now a WSET Level 4 Diploma candidate. Brings a master’s in counseling psychology to how she teaches adults.
Miranda Huseth
Los Angeles, California
Certified Professional Wine Educator™WSET Level 3, Champagne Specialist through the Comité Champagne, and a dipWSET candidate. A full-time wine professional since 2024.
Robin Farina
Nevada City, California
Certified Professional Wine Educator™Former professional cyclist turned wine professional. Holds the WSET Level 4 D2 certificate, with importer and distributor sales experience, and now works with vinSUITE.
Matthew A. Zarka, M.D.
Scottsdale, Arizona
Certified Professional Wine Educator™Surgical and cytopathologist specializing in head and neck pathology, and WSET Level 3. Researches loss of taste and smell in sommeliers following COVID-19.
Miryam Fossati
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Certified Professional Wine Educator™Fine wine curator and founder of Premier Cellars, a boutique wine concierge. Certified Sommelier, WSET Level 3 and French Wine Scholar, teaching in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
In their words
★★★★★“The PWE program gave me the foundational teaching skills I needed to confidently lead wine classes. Each instructor brought deep expertise and shared practical strategies I could apply right away. Practicing presentations and collaborating with classmates each week helped me grow as an educator and refine my teaching style. I now feel prepared, supported, and excited to teach wine with clarity and confidence.”
Ana S. · PWE Graduate
★★★★★“I appreciated the small community that my classmates and I formed as we encouraged each other to gain and refine our knowledge and skills as wine educators. I also benefitted immensely from the masterful guidance of all the instructors, who shared their experiences in teaching techniques, creating resources, and marketing. I am excited to take the next chapter in my wine journey.”
S. Okazaki · PWE Graduate
★★★★★“I was fortunate to have been taught by a team of great leaders with amazing talents, bottomless wisdom and boundless knowledge of the industry. The best decision I made.”
T. B. · PWE Graduate
Why we built this
A gap nobody else was filling.
At Napa Valley Wine Academy, we’ve always believed that wine education is about more than transferring information. Great education inspires curiosity, builds confidence, creates connection, and helps students see wine in a new way.
After more than a decade of building one of the leading wine schools in the U.S., we saw a clear need in the industry. Many wine professionals were gaining strong technical knowledge, but very few programs were helping them become better educators.
PWE was created to fill that gap.
This program focuses on the art and skill of teaching wine: how to communicate clearly, lead tastings, design learning experiences, engage different audiences, create effective learning tools, and develop the confidence to teach at a professional level.
It is our commitment to the next generation of wine educators — and to the students, teams, and communities they will go on to serve.
Program details
One cohort at a time, kept deliberately small.
- Format
- Online, live on ZoomIn-person exam in Napa
- Length
- 11 weeksWeekly live 2-hour classes
- Next cohort
- January 12 – April 2, 2027Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis
- Tuition
- $3,999
- Deposit
- $999Due once you’re accepted, to secure your seat
Seats are limited to preserve the quality of coaching, feedback, and cohort interaction.
What tuition includes
- 11 weeks of online instruction — weekly live 2-hour classes over Zoom, plus an in-person exam in Napa.
- Professional Wine Educator Academy™ training — instruction, practice and feedback from the full faculty across the program.
- A wine kit for instruction and practice sessions.
- Premier Crew membership — included as a value-add for every enrolled student.
- Graduate credential — recognition as a Certified Professional Wine Educator™ through Napa Valley Wine Academy.
- Educator community access — an ongoing network of PWE graduates.
- 3 months of PWE Mastermind after graduation.
Upcoming cohorts
Seats are released one cohort at a time, and applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Apply early for the date you want.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need any pre-requisites?
Yes. You should hold an advanced certification such as WSET Level 3, Certified Specialist of Wine, Certified Sommelier, or equivalent. We springboard off that knowledge and teach you the skills you need to be known as one of the best educators in the industry.
Do I need to already be teaching wine?
No. PWE is designed for both current educators and aspiring educators. You should have a strong foundation in wine and a serious desire to teach, but you do not need to already have a formal teaching role.
Is this a wine knowledge course?
Not primarily. PWE assumes you already have a foundation in wine. The focus is on how to teach wine: presentation, structure, tasting instruction, learning design, student engagement, and educator confidence.
What happens after graduation?
Graduates receive 3 months of access to the PWE Mastermind, where they continue building momentum, refine ideas, receive support, and stay connected with their educator community.
Who teaches the program?
Faculty include Peter Marks MW, Karen MacNeil, Catherine Bugue, Christian Oggenfuss, Janet Casey dipWSET, and other wine education leaders.
What credentials do graduates receive?
Graduates earn recognition as a Certified Professional Wine Educator™ through Napa Valley Wine Academy.
Ready to become the educator people remember?
If you are serious about teaching wine, leading more engaging classes, building your reputation, and becoming known as an industry-leading wine educator, the Professional Wine Educator Academy™ was built for you.