Vidya Narasimhan is an independent wine consultant who has recently transitioned to the wine industry. After years in Management Consulting and Banking across 3 continents, Vidya now advises Private Equity Firms on investments in Food and Wine, besides doing a range of other wine-related activities such as hosting wine tastings for corporates and private groups, judging wine competitions, providing wine recommendations for supper clubs and restaurants. She lends her voice to diversity, inclusion and sustainability initiatives in the wine industry. 

She has completed her Diploma in Wine from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET). She has completed the trio of Wine Scholar programmes from the Wine Scholar Guild (WSG): French Wine Scholar (Highest Honours), Spanish Wine Scholar (Highest Honours) and Italian Wine Scholar (Honours). She is currently enrolled for the Bordeaux Masters Programme at the WSG. 

Vidya is a wine judge, judging for London Wine Competition (LWC – 2025), Glass of Bubbly Awards (2023), Decanter Retailer Awards (2022) and People’s Choice Drinks Awards (2022 and 2023). She is an Advisory Board Member for Be Inclusive Hospitality (BIH) and an Ambassador for the Sustainable Wine Roundtable (SWR). She has an MBA from the Ross School of Business, Michigan (2006). 

Vidya’s passion for food and wine appreciation stems from love for travel when she would seek to eat and drink local in her global travels to understand culture and cuisine. Vidya is keen to make wine appreciation and learning an adventure - fun, approachable and accessible. 

This will be a fun event, where we will talk about different formats in the market and whether "bag in the box" or "canned wine" are still as horrible as they once were. We will taste and compare the new formats to bottled wine and will discuss how these formats may help the wine industry stem a decline in new, young drinkers by appearing more fun and enjoyable. Vidya can also speak about how she made the change from management consultant and banking to the wine industry.

We will be having a private room at Bancone in Borough Yards, a hip area with lots of fun bars and restaurants, tasting delicious Italian food with a range of different wines (bottles as well as some bag in the box).

BE AWARE: it will start at 8.30 pm until 23.30 pm

(We apologise in advance, our system is not set up to start at 6.30, so the confirmation will be 6.30 but the actual event starts at 8.30 pm. You will receive your calendar invitation in due time with the right timing..Thank you for your kind understanding)