LOS ANGELES — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi once wined and dined with high-dollar donors and other political heavyweights at an event hosted by the same Napa Valley vintners behind Pete Buttigieg’s “wine cave.”
In 2014, the California Democrat, who was then House minority leader, invited supporters to the home of former U.S. Ambassador to Austria Kathryn Hall and her billionaire businessman and developer husband Craig Hall, owners of Hall Wines, according to Politico at the time.
The cocktail and dinner reception was headlined by former Obama administration Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and included remarks from sitting Democratic lawmakers, such as California Rep. Ami Bera and Arizona Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick. Other attendees were people who paid at least $32,400 to be members of the 2014 Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Speaker’s Cabinet.
The Halls own two wineries in Napa Valley, in addition to a slew of tasting rooms: one in St. Helena and another in Rutherford. Their Rutherford property features their home and their famed chandelier room, both of which the couple open for private events. The room gets its name from Donald Lipski’s “Chilean Red” chandelier, complete with 1,500 Swarovski crystals.
Buttigieg, 37, drew criticism this week after images emerged from a Sunday fundraiser in the Halls’ chandelier room. Attended by 150 to 200 people, supporters paid between $500 and $2,800 for tickets, though those who paid $1,000 got a photo with the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and top-tier 2020 Democratic presidential candidate. The term “wine cave” was mentioned several times during Thursday night’s sixth primary debate in reference to the function space.
“The mayor just recently had a fundraiser that was held in a wine cave, full of crystals and served $900-a-bottle wine,” Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said. “He had promised that every fundraiser he would do would be open-door, but this one was closed-door. We made the decision many years ago that rich people in smoke-filled rooms would not pick the next president of the United States. Billionaires in wine caves should not pick the next president of the United States.”
Warren’s comments culminate a monthslong feud between the pair over transparency. Buttigieg was pressured to disclose his clients from his time as a McKinsey & Company management consultant, as well as the names of his fundraising bundlers. Warren, 70, in turn, was pressed to provide information on her private legal clients, from whom she earned almost $2 million fees since 1986.
