Only American contender in category
Napa, CA, January 2017 — The Napa Valley Wine Academy was awarded the coveted Wine & Spirits Education Trust’s Global Educator of the Year 2016 award at the annual WSET awards ceremony in London’s Guild Hall on January 23. In front of a crowd of approximately 500 wine and spirits professionals from around the world, including luminaries Hugh Johnson, Jancis Robinson, and Steven Spurrier, the Napa Valley Wine Academy’s Director of Education Catherine Bugué and founder and Director Christian Oggenfuss accepted the award, commenting “We are truly humbled and honored to receive this prestigious award from the WSET and Riedel. We are extremely grateful to our wonderful community of top instructors, passionate students, and the WSET all of whom are instrumental in driving our commitment to provide the very best in wine education at all levels. We have always held that excellence in education is the cornerstone to a higher level of hospitality, sales, and service, elevating standards throughout the wine industry and we look forward to sharing this award with our students, instructors, and the global wine community.”
Napa Valley Wine Academy was the sole U.S. school nominated in the Educator category this year. Contenders consisted of the WSET’s extensive network of 650+ Approved Program Providers in over 73 countries. The Global Educator of the Year award goes to the WSET provider who has made a significant contribution to WSET courses and qualifications in the past year while achieving superlative results in WSET courses and demonstrating innovation in education. The award is given in association with Riedel, the wine glass company.
Based in London, The Wine & Spirits Education Trust (WSET) is the biggest and most respected wine education and certification organization of its kind in the world. Established in London in 1969 and currently offering its prestigious wine courses in over 73 countries and 20 languages it has become the foremost international organization in the field of wines and spirits education with over half a million individuals having completed a WSET qualification.
Five Masters of Wine Educators at the Academy
Five Masters of Wine currently instruct and host webinars at the Napa Valley Wine Academy: Peter Marks, Christy Canterbury, Mary Margaret McCamic, Matt Deller and Tim Hanni. In addition to an extensive list of distinguished WSET Diploma-holding instructors, Master Sommelier Tim Gaiser conducts SommDay Workshops at the Academy.
ABOUT THE NAPA VALLEY WINE ACADEMY
The Napa Valley Wine Academy offers courses in several of America’s best-known wine markets: Napa Valley, Santa Barbara, California and at Bern’s Epicurean Hotel in Tampa, Florida in addition to locations in Colorado, Ohio, Tennessee, Nevada (Las Vegas) and Orlando, Florida.
The Academy headquarters are at 2501 Oak Street, Napa, CA, 94559.
Wine classes include those for enthusiasts such as Wine 101 as well as numerous certification courses for beginners as well as advanced students. The Academy is an Approved Program Provider with The Wine & Spirit Education Trust in London and a private school member of the Society of Wine Educators. Napa Valley Wine Academy offers the International Wine Professional, American Wine Expert, French Wine Society and SommDay tasting and service sommelier classes with Master Sommelier Tim Gaiser, among numerous other classes. In addition the Academy also has a robust offering of online courses that students can take no matter what their location.
