Champagne is one of the most heavily marketed segments in the wine world. Underneath the marketing sits the actual product, and you only really start to understand it after three sessions of blind-tasting eight or nine bottles side by side. Anja Vondenhoff is the only accredited instructor for the Champagne Specialist Course of the Comité Champagne in the Netherlands.
For Sparks episode 13 Anja joined to walk through how the course is built, what changed with champagne.education, and why the most expensive bottle is sometimes simply the most expensive bottle.
Who is Anja Vondenhoff
Anja lives in the eastern Netherlands and teaches across multiple wine-education institutions:
- WSET Diploma: sparkling wine unit
- Wijnacademie: Vinologenopleiding (upcoming)
- Comité Champagne: Champagne Specialist Course (level 4) in the Netherlands, in English
She also runs Wijncampus, where the Champagne Specialist Course is delivered. Among Dutch wine consumers on Instagram pointing toward serious champagne, “go to Anja” is a recurring tip.
How the Champagne Specialist Course is structured
The course was recently fully revamped by the Comité Champagne. Four levels with increasing difficulty:
- Levels 1, 2, 3: free online at champagne.education (note: not .com)
- Level 4 (Champagne Specialist): in-person with Anja, taught in English in the Netherlands
Each level builds on the previous. For level 4 Anja expects every participant to have completed the three online levels. Otherwise the group is not at the same theoretical baseline and the tasting experience stays superficial. The free online levels are open to everyone worldwide; level 4 demands preparation and attendance.
“You only really learn if the people around you in the course already share the same baseline of knowledge. That is why I make it almost mandatory: do the theoretical levels first, and then we can fully focus on the tasting.” — Anja Vondenhoff
Why 8 or 9 champagnes per session
The official minimum for level 4 is four champagnes per session. Anja considers that far too few. She pours eight or nine per session, sometimes more.
The reasoning: students travel far. A previous edition saw a student flying in from Dubai every Sunday. Others drive in from Maastricht or Groningen. For that investment, four bottles do not pay off. The course also runs on comparison. With four bottles you cannot really expose the subtle differences between, say, a Blanc de Blancs from one village and a Blanc de Blancs from another. Eight or nine bottles can.
Four you can taste at home. The added value of the course lies in bottles you would never open simultaneously yourself for direct comparison.
The exam
The Champagne Specialist Course ends with an actual exam, marked in Épernay by the Comité Champagne. Three components:
- Multiple choice: history, regulations, production details
- Open-style questions: where you show what you genuinely absorbed
- Blind tasting: identifying champagnes by grape, village, style, age
Passing earns you an official certificate. The full grape list is mandatory: not only Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Meunier, but also Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Arbane and Petit Meslier — seven authorized varieties.
Anja’s personal preference is the open-style section. That is where you reveal what you actually learned, instead of regurgitating trivia.
What aged bottles do to your tasting
A real eye-opener during Jeroen’s edition: champagne does not have to be drunk immediately after release. A bottle with 24 months of lees ageing often benefits from another two years on cork before it drinks at its peak. The wine evolves: rounder, deeper, brioche and nutty notes settle in.
Anja places young and aged versions of the same wine side by side in class. The difference is dramatic. An experience you cannot easily reproduce at home, since few people stash bottles for years specifically to compare.
Expensive does not mean better
Another lesson: once Anja slipped a high-end cult bottle in next to four lesser-known ones. The cult bottle was fine. The other four together cost the same and delivered far more pleasure. Marketing plays a heavy role in the champagne segment, and the course gives you the tools to judge beyond name, label and price.
“People sometimes wear very expensive clothing made of cheap fabric. The same goes for wine, especially champagne — there is a massive marketing aspect built into this business.” — Anja Vondenhoff
Champagne and food
A third focus area is food pairing. Not just oysters. During the course Anja sets sushi with cucumber, soy sauce and ginger against the same champagne. Flavors shift dramatically. The reason: champagne has tasting thresholds. Certain aromas only express themselves once food intensity pushes them above that threshold. Umami in soy sauce lifts umami in the champagne over the line — a flavor explosion on the palate that you would not notice without the pairing.
Sometimes pairing with food that does not match works beautifully too.
Who the course is for
A mix of:
- Wine sellers and importers
- Sommeliers and restaurant or wine-bar staff
- Serious consumers with a champagne passion
Anja notes that some consumers without formal wine education pass easily. Not because the exam is easy, but because real-world tasting plus motivated theory study fills the gap. The tasting level is at WSET Diploma height. The theory is comfortably reachable through the free online levels.
October 2025 edition
Anja runs the Champagne Specialist Course again from October 2025 across four Monday evenings from 19:15 to 22:00, plus two online sessions on food pairing and modern vinification techniques.
Location: HHS (Higher School of Education of the Hotel School Amsterdam) — purpose-built wine tasting room, free parking five minutes’ walk away or paid parking under the building.
Availability: six spots at the time of recording.
Sign-up: through wijncampus.nl.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between the online and in-person course? Levels 1, 2 and 3 are fully online at champagne.education and free for anyone worldwide. Level 4 (Champagne Specialist) is in-person, with live blind tasting and group discussion. Anja expects every level 4 participant to have completed the online levels first.
How many grapes are allowed in champagne? Seven officially authorized grape varieties: Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Arbane and Petit Meslier. The first three are the famous trio, but the full set is required knowledge for the exam.
What is “effervescence”? The English term for the bubbles in champagne. In Dutch sommelier language often called “mousse”.
Is the course suitable for consumers with no wine background? Yes, provided you have completed the free online levels 1-3 and have done sufficient real-world tasting. The tasting level is at WSET Diploma standard, but the theory is accessible through the free online cursus.
More about Anja Vondenhoff and Wijncampus
Visit wijncampus.nl for the Champagne Specialist Course and other wine programs. For the free online levels of the Comité Champagne: champagne.education. Course questions? Direct contact via Wijncampus.
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