Trump Winery (formerly Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyard) is a Virginia winery situated on Trump Vineyard Estates in Charlottesville, Virginia. The vineyard was purchased by businessman (now U.S. President) Donald Trump in April 2011 and was officially re-opened in October 2011. It is currently run by Trump's son Eric, under the name Eric Trump Wine Manufacturing LLC. Trump Winery manufactures 36,000 cases of wine per year. Donald Trump has referred to it as "one of the largest wineries in the United States", although it actually ranks behind two other Virginia wineries that produce at least 60,000 cases of wine per year. The current General Manager of the winery, Kerry Hannon Woolard, was a supporter of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and appeared as a guest speaker at the 2016 Republican National Convention as well as other campaign events.
Video Trump Winery
Acquisition
Donald Trump has been accused of having deliberately driven down the value of the vineyard prior to purchasing it out of foreclosure from Patricia Kluge, a former nude model and former wife of American billionaire John Kluge. After her divorce in 1990, Kluge spent much of her remaining fortune over the following two decades, in 1999 establishing a winery and continuing to expand its production. She and her new husband also took out $65 million in loans to fund the expansion. In 2011 the couple defaulted on the loans. Bank of America acquired the mortgage on the mansion itself, but the surrounding property was still held in a Kluge family trust. Trump, a longstanding friend of Patricia Kluge, bought the 200 acres (0.81 km2) surrounding the property directly from the trust for $150,000. The bank later alleged that Trump subsequently arranged for "No Trespassing" signs to be placed around the property and to allow the lawns to become overgrown in order to ward off potential buyers and to give the appearance of Trump's exclusive access to the property, although the bank's property interest in the main house included right-of-way easements. Trump then purchased the land from Bank of America for $3.6 million, a significant discount from the $16 million the bank had paid at the foreclosure auction to retain the property and to Kluge's original $100 million asking price the prior year.
In March 2016 Donald Trump stated publicly that he owned "the largest winery on the east coast,", although Politifact later determined this not to be true. Trump Winery makes 36,000 cases of wine per year compared to Williamsburg Winery and Chateau Morrisette Winery, which produce at least 60,000 cases per year, according to The Virginia Wine Board.
Maps Trump Winery
Awards
Before Trump acquired the winery, it had already won over 21 awards throughout the United States and the world. It received 10 Gold Standard awards, including the "Best Sparkling Wines in the World" award for Kluge SP Rosé.
In March 2013, Wine Enthusiast magazine gave the 2007 Trump SP Reserve a 91-point rating, which was at that time the highest rating for a still or sparkling Virginia wine.
Boycott
During Valentine's Day weekend of 2017, a Virginia chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) called for a boycott of Wegmans supermarkets in the state. NOW wanted to protest President Trump by calling for shoppers to not go to Wegmans due to their sale of Trump Winery products. However, it wound up having the opposite effect as many Trump supporters who had heard about the planned boycott went to the ten Wegmans locations in Virginia specifically to purchase Trump Winery products, causing them to sell most of their stock on hand.
References
External links
- Official website
Source of article : Wikipedia
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