When I heard that Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar had gotten into the wine biz, I thought “Hot dog! If she is as good at wine as she is at investing, this should be spectacular.” I mean, talk about creatio ex nihilo. Just a few years ago, Omar had a net worth of about $1,000. Now she is said to be worth some $30 million. Perhaps only Nancy Pelosi, the world’s most successful investor, is better at conjuring something out of nothing.
In 2022, eStCru, the winery Omar’s husband had invested in, was touted as a “hot brand” by Wine Business Monthly. There was chardonnay from the Willamette Valley, cabernet from Mendocino and more. Omar’s financial disclosure estimated the value of her holdings to be between $15,000 and $50,000 one year and between $1 million and $5 million the next. Savvy, what?
Alas, the winery no long exists. Looking for wine at eStCru is like looking for children at a Minneapolis childcare center. The adverts are many, the reality as exiguous as was honor for Sir John Falstaff in Henry IV, Part 1: “What is honor? A word. What is in that word ‘honor?’ What is that ‘honor?’ Air. A trim reckoning.”
So it appears I am not going to be able to pay homage to Ilhan Omar, vintner. I am not even going to be able to say anything about wines from Omar’s native Somalia. There aren’t any. As a consolation prize, let me commend to your attention a couple of wines that at least hail from the same continent.
We last visited the wines of South Africa in July 2024. I said then that South Africa, notwithstanding common misconceptions, was now home to some of the best-value wines anywhere. That is still the case. In the earlier trip, I mentioned the 2021 “Elodie” from the “landscape series” of the family-owned Gabriëlskloof winery (about $33), a crisp, subtle chenin blanc from the premier South African wine region of Walker’s Bay, about 50 miles southeast of Cape Town.
Let me now mention another wine from Gabriëlskloof, the 2023 “Whole Bunch” syrah, a bright, clean, fruit-forward wine also from the Bot River ward. (“Bot,” incidentally, comes from the Afrikaans botter, meaning creamy, or full of butter.) The name of the wine is indicative of the process of its making. The handpicked fruit that goes into this cheery wine is lightly crushed and whole-bunch fermented for about ten days before aging in a combination of steel tanks and old oak barrels. Tasting notes mention sour fig, dark chocolate and wet earth on the nose and a kaleidoscope of blueberry, black cherry, clove, salted licorice and cured meats on the palate. I got three out of five. The bottom line is that this an easy-drinking, generous wine that is a steal at about $19.
Another new discovery was the 2022 chenin blanc-verdelho from Momento Wines. Chenin blanc is South Africa’s most widely planted white grape. Fans of Madeira will recognize verdelho; the grape gives its name to one of the four main types of Madeira. It is planted throughout Portugal and has found homes in Australia, Argentina and the Azores. I do not believe that a country must start with the letter “A” in order to feature the grape, though the fact that we now find it in the southeastern part of Africa does make one wonder.
This flinty, aromatic, drily succulent wine is a blend of 63 percent chenin blanc and 37 percent verdelho. Naturally fermented and matured for ten months in old French oak barrels, the wine clocks in at about 13 percent alcohol. It is beautifully structured, starts shyly in the mouth but features a long and complex finish. The winemaker Marelise Niemann, a local star, has done a great job with this biddable, seafood-friendly wine. I see it around for about $40.
Finally, let’s make our way back to Ladoix, France, that little-known spot in the northern Côte de Beaune at the foot of the Corton Hill facing east-southeast. We were last there as part of our quest for burgundies that were 1) delicious and 2) affordable. We found a lovely chardonnay from Domaine Faiveley for about $45. I am pleased to tell you now about another delicious Ladoix chardonnay, the 2022 “Le Clou d’Orge” Domaine Gagey from the storied house of Louis Jadot. This is a rich, well-balanced white burgundy with a seductive nose, complex palate and extended finish. For about $55-$60, it is a worthy addition to your library of vinous memorabilia.
That’s it for the wines I have actually tasted. For the wines I’d like to taste, we have to do a bit of deep-sea diving. The Guardian has reported that “the big thing” is deep-sea aging for Champagne. It turns out that 145 bottles of champers recovered in 2010 from an 1852 wreck off Finland were intact and, what’s more, drinkable. A blanket of 160 feet of water does wonders for the elixir. “Incredible,” said one expert. “I have never tasted such a wine in my life.” The wine is going for at least $17,000 per bottle, some for as much as $190,000. I will give you a full report when my editors at the Speccie procure a bottle for me.
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