How do you become a Champagne Expert? There are a lot of ways to become an expert in wine and one of them is through formal training.The Wine Scholar Guild offers a variety of Master Programs focused on different French Wine Regions including Champagne. There are no pre-requisites listed for the Champagne Master Level program but a basic understanding of wine and/or champagne is recommended. In this post, I am going to walk you through my study tips on becoming a Champagne Master that I used that led me to getting Highest Honors.

A Champagne Study Manual comes with the class and is mailed to you once you sign up. The manual is close to 100 pages and should become your best friend during the program. In addition to the manual there are 15 webinars with top wine professionals including Essi Avellan (MW) going over a variety of different champagne topics. The webinars are from an hour to an hour and a half. The webinars are prerecorded and you can go at your own pace.This program is completely self-study and you have access to the online forum and webinars for a year. The test consists of 10 map locations, 50 multiple choice, and 4 essay/short answer worth 10 points each.
There is also an immersion trip to Champagne that you can go on before or after you take the exam if you choose. Unfortunately it was canceled last year and this year, but I am hoping for 2022. The trip has taken place every year and Essi leads the immersion trip. This is an additional cost of $4,350.

My number one tip for being successful on the Champagne Master exam is to read and re-read the manual. I read through it around 15 times (possibly more) and it is the best piece of advice. If I could go back I would have read it at least three times before starting the webinars. When it comes to what to study, focus on key dates, numbers, french words (there will be a handful of words that you should know and you will likely be tested on), and key concepts including yields, grapes, and champagne styles. The online classroom has sample questions that you can focus on to determine the style of the multiple choice questions. I wrote out all of these questions in a document and highlighted the answers to review. Here is an example of what I did:

Which winemaking advancement did not occur in the 1600s?

Cork was reintroduced as a seal

The pupitre was developed to assist in riddling - 1840 

England developed a method to make strong glass

Bottles were crafted with uniform neck openings. 

There are 10 questions based on a map of Champagne. This is all memorization. Continually practice on the Map Practice Study Guides that are provided by the Wine Scholar Guild and you will have no issue. Focus on key regions, rivers, cities, and crus. The Map section is what you are tested on first and having confidence in this area will help you feel confident throughout the exam.

There are 15 webinars that offer so much great information in regards to Champagne and the region, however it can easily feel overwhelming. Some of the webinars are more technical and harder to get through then others. I also became distracted by all of the questions that would pop up on the side of the recording, since there was a chat box during the live session that can not be minimized. About three weeks before my test, I realized that I could convert the webinars into audio only files. I wish I had known this when I started! It was a game changer. I converted all of the webinars into audio files and then exported them to my iPhone and saved them under the Voice Memos App. I was then able to listen to them during my daily hikes instead of a podcast. This helped me retain the information and I was able to better follow along, as there were fewer distractions.

The key webinars to focus on that helped me the most:

Essi’s webinars on Making Champagne, Blending and Balance, House Styles

Peter Liem’s two webinars on the regions: Montagne de Reims and Côte des Blancs and the Marne

I still listen to these webinars as they are packed with information.

The last part of the Champagne Master Level Exam is four essay questions. This was the hardest part for me as I did not feel like there was enough examples given as there was only one example focused on climate change. A week before the exam I started to write out the following concepts in a notebook: Champagne History, Soils of Champagne, Champagne Grapes, Champagne AOC, Steps of the Champagne Method, Evolution of the Vineyard Practices, Climate Change, Yields, Importance of Dom Perignon, Vineyard Year, Expansion of the Champagne Viticole, Producer Codes, Special Club, Types and Styles, Rootstocks and Clones, Climate, Spirit Products, etc. Yes, this is a lot but knowing these concepts and writing to them will help on the exam.

The exam is 90 minutes long and I never have enough time on tests. So writing out all the concepts above allowed me to be better prepared for the exam and the essays.

This program has given me great confidence in the Champagne region and my next skill that I will be focusing on is tasting as there is no tasting component to the exam. I hope to try a lot more champagnes in order to better understand the region, and I of course hope to do this in Champagne as soon as travel opens up. The class is $495 for the certification and for one year of access to the materials. I took longer than a year, so I downloaded all of the webinars and materials and saved in a folder on my hard drive so that I could continue to utilize the tools after the year was over. To really prepare for the course, some great resources are the Colonel François Bonal Champagne Encyclopedia and World Encyclopedia Champagne Sparkling Wine by Tom Stevenson and Essi Avellan MW. To find out more on the program, click here. Leave me comments if you have specific questions on the test I am happy to answer them! Santé!