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Gavin Newsom’s carefully guarded wine empire is still netting a pretty penny while he’s in the governor’s office.
Details of the governor’s sprawling network of wineries, hotels and booze ventures are revealed in the California governor’s economic disclosures.
Federal Department of Justice probes involving Newsom’s wife, associates and family tax issues has ramped up scrutiny of the governor’s personal assets as he pledges to eventually release his tax returns to the public.
Newsom called the investigations, which he revealed in a prerecorded video last week, politically motivated.
A Post analysis of his latest disclosure shows the governor made at least $410,000 last year — though the number could be significantly higher — from his wine and hospitality investments.
State disclosures do not give specific numbers but only require general ranges for reported income.
The California governor’s luxury booze kingdom spans exclusive enclaves in San Francisco, Napa Valley and Lake Tahoe and is so vast that he raked in more than $100,000 offloading bottles to a rare wine broker last year, according to a disclosure he filed in March.
He has parked many of his holdings into a blind trust worth more than a $1 million. That blind trust includes ownership in multiple wine investment companies, including Arielle Wines.
The sprawling wine empire is based out of his Napa-based winery company PlumpJack, a lucrative wine and hospitality business he founded off the back of his connections to California’s wealthiest family, the Gettys.
PlumpJack Estate has a 42-acre vineyard on a 57-acre plot with a tasting room and production facilities. The wine empire has another 54-acre winery in Angwin used to grow grapes for various wines plus a vineyard in the same city. A third winery is based in Napa.
Newsom reported more than $100,000 from the investment companies and business entities that hold those estates in their portfolio.
His holdings include Odette Estate Winery, which offers “elegant, balanced wines made to turn any moment into an everlasting memory” according to its website.
Newsom’s CADE Estate, on Napa’s Howell Mountain, sells “luxury wine in harmony with the environment” for $100 or more per bottled.
The governor earned more than $10,000 from a hospital management company that invested in Plumpjack Inn in Olympic Valley, a skiing inn near Lake Tahoe.
Other hospital management companies, which have given him more than $100,000, run establishments like the Mission District cocktail bar WildHawk, which Newsom opened with his sister, or the upscale Balboa Cafe, which he launched with Getty’s son. There’s also White Rabbit bar located in the Marina district.
A retail wine operation associated with Plumpjack has given more than $100,000 last year, too.
The governor and ex-businessman also reported more than $100,000 in wine sales to Benchmark Wine Group — described as the “leading source of fine and rare wine for wine retailers, restaurants and collectors around the world.”
A collection of rare wines produced by Newsom’s Plumpjack is shown on Benchmark’s website.
The wines range from $47 for a 2018 Plumpjack Merlot to nearly $1,200 for a magnum of 2016 Plumpjack Cabernet Sauvignon Oakville Reserve.
The earnings showcase the wide entrepreneurial reach of the governor, who in 2020 reported a gross income of almost $1.5 million.
He signed an order after he became governor barring state agencies from doing business with his wine firms — though he spent $50,000 of his political donors’ money at his own Plumpjack Wines, The Post previously reported.
Newsom has bragged about his business ventures before, though the Gettys played a huge role in boosting his empire.
Newsom’s father, attorney and appeals court judge William Newsom, was so trusted by Gordon Getty that he delivered the $2.2 million ransom to secure the release of his nephew, John Paul Getty III, who had been kidnapped by the Italian Mafia on July 10, 1973.
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