Events

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)

Join us for an outdoor Opera evening in one of the most unique London summer evenings!

After last year's success, we have decided to come back to Holland Park for another evening full of laughter, songs, and good wines!!

Doors open at 5.30 pm and, we suggest arriving at 6.00 pm. We will meet at the entrance of Holland Park Opera to be taken to a table reserved for us. Performances start at 7.30. there is an interval at 8.30-45 pm for 30 minutes. The performance ends around 9.35 / 9.45 and we can go back to our table if we want until it closes at 11 pm. A picnic from an Italian Deli will be served. It will be a Bring Your Own (BYO) bottle.  This is meant to be more about relaxing and networking and less about speakers or wine information.

Please find below the description from Holland Park Opera:

Lehár’s delicious comedy of bankruptcy, infidelity, social climbing and the rekindling of romance between two old flames receives a new spin in the first of two co-productions between Opera Holland Park, Scottish Opera and D’Oyly Carte Opera in the 2025 Season. With his family’s finances on the verge of collapse, Zeta must engineer a marriage between the playboy Danilo and Hanna, once considered too low-born to be Danilo’s bride but now a very wealthy and very independent widow. Against a backdrop of lavishly themed parties, spectacular dances, political intrigue and a subplot of brewing romance between Zeta’s wife, Valencienne, and her hapless suitor Camille, Hanna and Danilo begin to fall in love once more, now a little older and a great deal wiser.