Keynote Speaker
Andrew Jefford
Decanter World Wine Awards Co-Chair, Saperavi International Wine Competition Jury Chair, Wine Writer
The son of a vicar and eldest of three brothers, Andrew Jefford grew up in Norfolk, UK. He studied English at the University of Reading and pursued post-graduate studies under Malcolm Bradbury at the University of East Anglia before working as a publishing editor. Since becoming a wine writer in 1988, he has written for many British newspapers, including The Evening Standard (for ten years), The Financial Times, The Guardian and The Times; he is today Contributing Editor and a regular columnist for both Decanter and The World of Fine Wine, as well as Academic Advisor to the Wine Scholar Guild. He is one of four Co-Chairs for the London-based Decanter World Wine Awards, the largest global wine competition; he is also Jury Chair of the Saperavi International wine competition, held biannually in Tblisi, Georgia, and helps judge the Latvian Wine of the Year competition held annually in Riga. He has also broadcast extensively on wine, tea and other subjects for BBC Radio in the UK. He leads study tours in France for the Wine Scholar Guild, and lectures on wine globally.
He has written twelve books and guides including The New France and Peat Smoke and Spirit (about the island of Islay), which has been republished (after 16 reprints) as Whisky Island in May 2019. Autumn 2008 saw the publication of the first edition of Andrew Jefford's Wine Course; the second edition was published in 2017. A book-length collection of his writings on wine (and tea), Drinking with the Valkyries, was published in September 2022. He spent 15 months in Australia between 2009 and 2010 (during which he was Wine Writer in Residence to the Wine 2030 Research Network and a Senior Research Fellow at Adelaide University), and since then has lived with his family in Languedoc, France. His poetry has been published in The Spectator and The Independent, as well as via his twitter account @andrewcjefford. He enjoys family time, running, walking, music and thinking.
Featured Speakers
Namratha Prashanth
Winemaker/Brand Owner of Soclicantus (Bordeaux) & Consultant
Namratha is a wine merchant, consultant and brand owner based in Bordeaux, France. She lived more than a decade of her married life in a patriarchal household, in India, where she was forbidden from working. Over the years, she strived to become independent, which gave rise to conflict. Finally, in 2016, she broke free and moved to France. Namratha secured a Master's degree in Wine Management & Marketing at a school in Bordeaux and then with a spirit of an entrepreneur she started Wine Equation — a wine negociant company offering a range of wines and wine services. Later she went on to collaborate with a French winemaker and create her own brand of wine, Solicantus, which is now distributed in three different countries. Her empowering journey from being an ordinary Indian housewife to founding her own wine company in France has been covered on Forbes, Decanter and many other magazines.
Kate Venugopal
California Wines International Marketing Sustainability Specialist
Kate Venugopal has spent the past decade working to advance the adoption of sustainable practices in the California wine community. She currently serves as the California Wines International Marketing Sustainability Specialist, working to convey the depth and breadth of California’s leadership in sustainable and climate smart winegrowing worldwide.
Before entering the wine industry, Kate worked in Washington D.C. on agricultural and natural resources policy for a Member of Congress representing Northern California. Prior to that, she co-founded and managed a farm-to-table restaurant in Athens, GA. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Horticulture, with a focus on Sustainable Agriculture from the University of Georgia. Kate lives in Oakland, CA with her husband and two children.
