An Ode to Ikenga Wines

Ode is drawn to how people across the African diaspora are reinterpreting heritage through contemporary gastronomy — a question that feels personal to us, shaped in part by our own Nigerian founder’s relationship to culture, perception, and experience. Palm wine carries centuries of West African heritage, but sparkling is new ground for it. What draws us to Ikenga is how naturally its palm wines invite comparison, interpretation, and curiosity.

We're also drawn to multipassionate people, those who draw inspiration from multiple backgrounds rather than staying in one lane, and Ikenga's founder is exactly that: Onye Ahanotu is a multidisciplinary founder whose training spans science, engineering, and design as much as winemaking.

At Raison d’Être

Ikenga is contributing palm wines for a comparative tasting during the City Loop, hosted by Muno, WSET Level 2 Award in Wines holder. Guests taste both wines under their Researcher labels and answer a short set of questions, capturing preference, taste qualities, and flavor associations.

City Loop · Taste Mapping · Pattern Recognition

Taste

System

About

Ikenga Wines is a palm wine project rooted in West African heritage, built around experimentation, research, and a deeper engagement with how palm wine is made, understood, and experienced. Founder and winemaker Onye Ahanotu is a Nigerian-American who grew up in what is now a world-renowned wine region, Sonoma County. That context infused with classical research foundations run through the brand's whole approach: rigorous synthesis that blends both ancestral philosophies and western science to prototype an elegant future.

Explore Ikenga Wines →