Maba Ba, the founder of Flying Whale Wine, takes us on a journey through the fascinating origins of his wine brand. Drawing inspiration from the Dogon people of West Africa and their ancient knowledge of the Sirius star system, Maba explains how this cultural heritage influenced the name and ethos of Flying Whale Wine. With a commitment to giving back, Maba's wines not only tantalize the palate but also aim to create a positive impact in the world.
As Maba shares his personal story, we learn about his upbringing in Dakar, Senegal, and his travels that eventually led him to the world of winemaking in southern France. From a chance meeting during a film festival to forging a partnership with a renowned winemaker, Maba's path to creating Flying Whale Wine is as compelling as the wines themselves. Tune in to discover how tradition, passion, and innovation come together in this unique wine venture.
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Welcome, welcome to the best five-minute wine podcast with Forrest Kelly.
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Imagine a wine that tastes like Southern France and feels like doing something good in the
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This is Flying Whale Wine, born from tradition, built on innovation, and driven by a man whose
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passion for craft is only matched by his commitment to giving back.
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I'm the founder of Flying Whale Wine.
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So the name Flying Whale, it's an homage to the Dogon, the Dogon people.
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They were a tribe in West Africa that their whole architecture and belief system was based
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on the Sirius star system, Sirius A and Sirius B. It's not until the 40s that we as humanity
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know of the existence of Sirius because it's a white dwarf.
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It's not only invisible to the naked eye, it also was invisible to every telescope that
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we had until the Hubble telescope was invented.
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Yet somehow this ancient tribe knew of its existence.
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So we had these two French anthropologists, Marcel Griot, went down to interview the
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last four Dogons back in the 40s, when they realized this mystery, and that's how we know
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of their tradition.
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They wrote a beautiful book called The Pale Fox about it.
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And so there is not that many pure Dogon left, if any.
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And I called it Flying Whale because they believed that coming from the Sirius star
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system was an extraterrestrial being, an amphibian being called the Nomo who flew from
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Sirius B to Earth to drop off the first humans and restore harmony and peace on the planet.
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And they flew in a whale-like ship, so in a flying whale.
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So that's where that comes from.
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And we don't need to get into the specifics, but sperm whale is my favorite whale.
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I just like the ergonomics and the way that it looks, you know, there's a million different
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kinds of whales, right?
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So what's your interpretation of the whale?
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I've always been fascinated with whales breaching.
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I grew up in Senegal, in Dakar, I grew up diving a lot.
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I've been very close to the ocean my whole life.
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And I've always been fascinated with whales breaching.
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And I thought, at the same time, what if the whole evolution of whale, obviously it's not
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scientifically, but just as an imagination, what if the whole evolution of whales was
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to get out of the ocean and they keep trying and they fall back in.
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It is fascinating that when they breach, yeah, that mammoth body coming out of the water
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and it's just like you say, yeah, they're trying to get out, but they can't do it.
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But they can't do it.
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So I give them wings, you know.
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So Senegal, refresh my memory, it's the westernmost part of Africa.
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Explain to us a little bit.
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Let's say you're standing on your house, you're standing on the house, what are we looking
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Well, Dakar, where the city where I was born and raised is a peninsula.
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So it's surrounded by the ocean.
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You're looking at the Atlantic as the most west you can possibly be on the African continent,
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literally digging into the Atlantic.
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You're looking at the beach, you're looking at baobab trees, white sand, culture, beautiful
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colors, great music, great food.
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It's the country of the Teranga.
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Teranga means hospitality.
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So it's a country of hospitality.
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Everybody eats together.
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Is there a shipping port there since you're right on the ocean?
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There is the port of Dakar.
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There is also the Goree Island that has a lot of history.
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I think a few U.S. presidents visited.
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It's a cultural hub.
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So that's where you were born.
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And so you've got that reference point.
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And then what projected you into France?
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You know, where we'll get to that right while we're recording this, you're in New York.
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So you're a world traveler.
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Definitely always been a world citizen, traveled a bunch.
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I've just been a serial entrepreneur and what always pushed me was curiosity overall and
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I find meaning, I find different meanings for life in different things that I've done.
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In this case, it was the time for wine.
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I got an opportunity to meet a great winemaker in the south of France, in Alnay, France.
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It was not planned.
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About three years ago, I was in Miami having a meeting for something completely different.
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I went there for a film festival.
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And at the same time, I had a meeting because I'm a filmmaker, I make movies as well.
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And so at the same time, I had a meeting for something different.
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I'm a huge WNBA basketball fan.
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And I wanted to meet with some people talking about WNBA.
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But when I sat for lunch, I learned that the both people I was meeting used to have a wine
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So the meeting turned into the chat about wine.
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I always loved wine.
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I always loved the culture around it, how old of a tradition it is, how it brings people
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It's always been fascinating to me.
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I didn't know much about it.
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I just knew what I liked.
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I knew my palate, even though I couldn't really talk a lot about it, you know, it was still
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It was a great opportunity to learn.
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I asked one of the person at the meeting and she told me that she knew this great winemaker
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in the South of France.
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This was June of 2022.
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In August, I was in the South of France getting introduced to DJ Rodriguez, whom we developed
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a great friendship and been working together since.
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