Catherine Bugue, co-founder of the Napa Valley Wine Academy, at a session of the St. Helena Star and Napa Valley Vintners Tasting Panel in 2017.
The Napa Valley Wine Academy has managed to nearly double its enrollment since 2019, remaining on par with global Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) trends following the pandemic.
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“2020 proved to be surprisingly strong,” said Catherine Bugue, Director of Education at NVWA. “The numbers are still above what we thought they would be.”
WSET certifications range from Level 1 to a Level 4 Diploma, and are offered as opportunities for wine, spirits, and sake experts to deepen their knowledge of the beverage for professional or personal gain. As a major provider of WSET courses in the United States, NVWA was able to quickly make the transition to online coursework, a move that ultimately saved their student numbers.
“It was strong for us because we already had an online presence,” said Bugue.
A longtime wine educator, Bugue had taught international and out-of-town students before, so the NVWA had a bit of a head start when it came to setting up the infrastructure for virtual classes in early 2020.
“We had already thought about how if someone were to take a course online, they need wine kits so they can taste with their instructor,” she said. “It took us two years to develop those wine kits, and they came on board just as COVID was beginning … It was unbelievable.”
Bugue says that as a result, NVWA’s online classes ballooned with students last year, with a larger percent hailing from the United States than ever before.
“There would be like 200 sometimes in a classroom,” she said.
NVWA’s wine educators quickly added multiple facets to the virtual program, including that all-important face-to-face (or screen-to-screen?) time with the tenured instructors on staff. Soon, they were able to teach all four levels of WSET courses multiple times a month, and once in-person classes resumed, added an additional week of “boot camp” for those preparing for the Level 3 test.
“Two of them sold out in a day, [and] we have a waitlist,” said Bugue of the highly-popular boot camp offerings. “We could’ve done a fourth one.”
The popularity of NVWA courses has continued into the fall, although in-person classes have been cut in half for safety’s sake. Nonetheless, Bugue and her fellow wine educators are highly impressed with the 97 percent jump in enrollment between summer 2019 and 2021.
And according to Bugue, so are their students.
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“The last group of boot camp students I was with begged us to do a Sonoma version,” she said. “So, we are … why not next year?”
Bugue says her students wanted “an experience” after being cooped up for months due to the pandemic, and she was eager to slate programming and facilitate that feeling.
“You can see when people’s eyes get bright and they want to keep learning,” she said, “It is such a fun thing to see.”
NVWA’s in-person courses are sold out for this fall, but online courses aplenty are available for different levels and interests.
Go inside Napa's new Cambria Hotel Napa Valley. This 90-room hotel is located at 320 Soscol Ave. It is managed by Azul Hospitality.
You can reach Sam Jones at 707-256-2221 and sjones@napanews.com.
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