Civil War And Reconstruction
Unlike much of Virginia, Charlottesville was spared the brunt of the . The only battle to take place in Charlottesville was the , an encounter in which briefly engaged local before retreating. A year later, the Charlottesville Factory, founded c. 182030, was accidentally burnt during General s 1865 raid through the Shenandoah Valley, although the mayor had surrendered the city to Generals Custer and Sheridan to keep the town from being burned. The factory had been taken over by the Confederacy and used to manufacture woolen clothing for the soldiers. It caught fire when some coals taken by Union troops to burn the nearby railroad bridge dropped on the floor. The factory was rebuilt immediately and was known as the Woolen Mills until its liquidation in 1962.After the Civil War, emancipated slaves who remained in Charlottesville established communities in neighborhoods such as Vinegar Hill.
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The Trump Winery Is Far From The Largest In The State Despite The President’s Claims
In March of 2016, then presidential candidate Donald Trump stated that the Trump Winery was “the largest winery on the East Coast.” This was a falsehood on multiple fronts by multiple metrics.
First, by volume of wine produced, the Trump Winery is far from the largest winery on the East Coast of America and is not even the largest in the state of Virginia. As PolitiFact reported shortly after his claims, while the Trump Winery produces about 36,000 cases of wine annually, both the Williamsburg Winery and the Chateau Morrisette wineries produce approximately 60,000 cases of wine each year. And zooming outward to look at the East Coast in the bigger picture, Duplin Winery in North Carolina produces nearly 400,000 cases of wine annually, dwarfing the Trump Winery’s output.
When looked at in terms of acres under vine the claim that Trump Winery is the biggest on the East Coast is also easily demonstrably false. There are at least two vineyards in New York that are notably larger than the Trump Winery in terms of active acreage. Trump Winery has about 200 acres under vine, while the Wagner Vineyards Estate Winery of upstate New York has 250 active acres and Pindar Vineyards on New York’s Long Island has 300 acres of grape vines planted. That metric does, however, make it the largest vineyard in Virginia… but that’s not what he said, is it?
Is Red Meritage Wine Dry Or Sweet
A little of the aromatic Muscadelle grape may be added, but the variety is too sweet for most modern American palates and is used more as a condiment to the wine than a staple ingredient. Such is the strength of Sauvignon Blancs varietal identity that the need to label the wine as Meritage has considerably lessened.
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Wegmans Sells Out Of Trump Wine Targeted By Boycott
Wegmans, shown here in Western New York, also has locations in Virginia.
A recent boycott of Trump Winery products at Wegmans stores in Virginia seems to have had the opposite of the intended effect.
A womens rights group, unhappy with Trumps policies, asked the grocer last week to stop carrying Trump Winery products. The group said its members would stop shopping at the store if Wegmans failed to do so.
The wine, as a result, has been taken off the shelves. But not by the company by customers.
Wegmans said Friday it has seen sales of Trump wines jump as news of the boycott spread after the Washington Post first wrote about it earlier this week.
The demand has increased in our Virginia stores over the last few days, said Jo Natale, a Wegmans spokeswoman.
As of late Thursday, she said, some of the companys 10 Virginia stores had sold out of all five varietals of Trump wine. By Friday, all but one store was sold out and the remaining store had just one varietal left.
Natale could not say how many bottles of Trump wine the stores had before the boycott. I know that shelves were fully stocked and there was replenishment inventory, too, Natale said.
About 300 members of the National Organization for Women in Virginia, who have been vocal about their opposition to President Trump, were behind the boycott. Wegmans declined to pull the wine, saying demand is the only factor that determines what the company sells.
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Available From Wine Merchants
Wines are available online from wine merchants. These wines can be shipped to the following destinations.
Alaska , Alabama , Arkansas , Arizona , California , Colorado , Connecticut , District of Columbia , Delaware , Florida , Georgia , Hawaii , Iowa , Idaho , Illinois , Indiana , Kansas , Kentucky , Louisiana , Massachusetts , Maine , Michigan , Minnesota , Missouri , Mississippi , Montana , North Carolina , North Dakota , Nebraska , New Hampshire , New Jersey , New Mexico , Nevada , New York , Ohio , Oklahoma , Oregon , Pennsylvania , Rhode Island , South Carolina , South Dakota , Tennessee , Texas , Virginia , Vermont , Washington , Wisconsin , West Virginia , Wyoming ,
As there are varied U.S. state laws regarding the direct shipment of wine, your destination may not be listed. If your state is not listed above, please reference the following resources dedicated to the free trade of wine: Wine Institute and Free the Grapes
What Does It Taste Like
Reviews of Trump wine are mixed. In early 2016, VinePair held a taste test of the Blanc de Blanc, Viognier, New World Reserve, and the now-out-of-stock Meritage with the wine director of the Manhattan restaurant Piora. In general, the wines tasted mediocre and cheap. The price of the wines has since increased, respectively, by $8, $4, and $24.
Erin Scala, a sommelier at Petit Pois in Charlottesville, had a more generous opinion. In the Washington Post in 2016, Scala wrote that some of the wines are good and worth the price, but that the wines association with the GOP frontrunner is likely to keep them off wine lists they otherwise belong on.
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We Tried Some Bottles From Trump Winery In Virginia
In the rolling hills of Virginia, not far from the University he designed and founded, Thomas Jefferson made repeated attempts to grow vitis vinifera, meaning European grape varieties. After traveling in France, the Statesman had fallen in love with elegant wine, and was determined to plant the nations first vineyards. But the humid climate, and the prevalence of a New World vine pest called Phylloxera, kept defeating his efforts.
Today, Virginia wine country is flourishing, thanks in part to well-known and well-funded wineries like Barboursville, as well as the notable inclusion of a sparkling Virginia wine at a 2014 White House dinner, with none other than François Hollande as President Obamas guest.
If the 2016 presidential elections go toward one candidate in particular, the White House may soon be serving all Virginia winebecause in 2011, Donald Trump himself purchased a 1300-acre Virginia winery located mere miles away from Jeffersons famed Monticello home. Curious about these wines, I asked Victoria James, the wine director at a Michelin-starred Manhattan restaurant Piora, to help me taste through four bottles from the Trump Winery. After all, we figured that with such a distinguished presidential history in Virginia, shouldnt a presidential candidate making wine there be producing something really good? Heres how our tasting went.
drop!
Victoria: This isnt bad. It was probably acidified. As if its been toyed with.
VinePair: How do you identify that?
One Wine Expert Called Most Trump Winery Wines Grape Jelly With Alcohol
As granted earlier, several wines made by the Trump Winery are of good quality and have been given multiple awards and solid reviews by respected institutions, publications, and people. But many wines from the Trump portfolio are not so much worthy of accolade as they are of utter derision. Writing in Vanity Fair in 2017, Corby Kummer, executive director of the Aspen Institutes Food and Society Program and multiple James Beard Award winner for his food writing, Kummer described the experience of tasting nearly a dozen Trump Winery wines while in the company of a noted wine expert.
In his article about the tasting experience, Kummer and his associate eviscerated multiple Trump Winery wines. The chardonnay is referred to as oaked up too much residual sugar harvested too ripe flabby. The Meritage was Welchs grape jelly with alcohol a terrible, fumy alcoholic nose. The expert also stated that the winery was lying about the alcohol on the label of that latter wine, though his method of measuring that isnt exactly scientific.
The highest praise that came from the Trump Winery tasting was for the Sparkling Blanc de Blanc, of which the oenophile said: Its fine it doesnt offend. Id get drunk on it at a wedding. lets be honest, Id get drunk on anything at a wedding.
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Some Of The Trump Winery Wines Are Surprisingly Good
In standard Trump fashion, the Trump family moved in on an already established business, bought it out, slapped their name on it, then took all the credit for any later success. In this case, said success comes in the fact that many cases the re-christened Trump Winery sells are packed with surprisingly decent bottles of wine. The Piedmont region of Virginia, which lies east of the Blue Ridge Mountains, is noted for several grape varieties in particular, such as chardonnays and Cabernet Francs, and the Trump Winery makes good use of the terroir in its winemaking.
The Trump Winery chardonnay has been awarded multiple medals, including gold by the San Francisco Chronicle in 2017, the New World Reserve won a gold medal in the 2016 Virginia Governor’s Cup, and the Sparkling Blanc de Blanc has received 92 points from respected experts including Steven Spurrier and James Suckling. So while it might be tempting to throw shade over the entirety of the Trump Winery, you have to hand it to them for making a few good wines. Or actually, you have to hand it to Jonathan Wheeler, the actual winemaker of the winery, who according to the Trump Winery website: “…has been directly responsible for our 90+ point scores with Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, and James Suckling, numerous best-in-class designations, and internationally awarded gold medals.”
Turns out you don’t need to give the Trumps credit for Trump wines after all.
Trump Wine Coming To Liquor Store Near You
Want to wine and dine like Donald Trump? Sip on a glass of Trump Wine. After ongoing negotiations, the real estate tycoon finalized the deal to buy the Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyard outside Charlottesville in Virginia last week. He paid the bargain price of $6.2 million for 800 acres in a bank auction, reported
Want to wine and dine like Donald Trump? Sip on a glass of Trump Wine.
After ongoing negotiations, the real estate tycoon finalized the deal to buy the Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyard outside Charlottesville in Virginia last week.
He paid the bargain price of $6.2 million for 800 acres in a bank auction, reported the Washington Post.Im really interested in good real estate, not so much in wine, Trump said. This place had a $28 million mortgage on it, and I bought it for $6.2 million.
Trump swooped in to buy the property as a white knight investor from friend Patricia Kluge, an embattled Virginia socialite. He will keep Kluge on to head operations.
The vineyards produce varietals that include Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
In addition to his empire of hotels and golf courses, Trumps investments include a range of luxury foodstuffs like Trump Vodka, Trump Tea, Trump Chocolate and bottled spring water, Trump Ice.
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Donald Trump Bought The Vineyard Winery And Mansion At Fire Sale Prices
The backstory of the property today called Trump Winery is complex and rather depressing, so lets try to move through it efficiently. In 1981, Iraqi-born British-American former model and socialite Patricia Kluge . She was 33, he was one year more than twice her age. A few years later the couple relocated to a sprawling property and massive mansion they built near Charlottesville, Virginia, partly in order to raise an adopted son, largely to enjoy their own private 18-hole golf course, massive game preserve, multiple manmade lakes, and so on. In 1990, the couple divorced and Patricia got most of the estate as well as a reputed $100 million. It was time for her to follow her own dream to start a vineyard and make world-class wines.
She would invest everything had into the vineyard and by the early years of the 2000s, the Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyard was indeed producing world-class wines that won awards and accolades and wide. Then came the financial crash starting in 2008. Soon the winery was losing a million dollars every two months. Kluge listed her mansion for $100 million soon the price was slashed to a quarter of that. Still it would not sell. When her longtime friend Trump finally acquired the house, he paid $6.7 million. He had already bought the vineyard and winery out of foreclosure for $8.5 million.
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New Zealand Wineries Owner Gave Nearly $400000 To Trump: Report
New Zealanders may be surprised to know that the backer of many of their favourite wine brands is a Trump supporter, commentators say.
Bill Foley is an American billionaire whose Foley Family Wines Holdings has the majority stake in Foley Wines, which owns wine brands including Mt Difficulty, Te Kairanga, Vavasour, Roaring Meg, Dashwood, Russian Jack and Boatshed Bay as well as Lighthouse Gin.
A report by the San Francisco Chronicle said Foley had donated US$255,600 to United States President Donald Trump between 2016 and 2020.
It was the second-largest donation by a California vintner or winery executive to the Trump campaign, the paper said.
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The biggest was from Tom Barrack at Happy Canyon Vineyard, worth US$360,600.
Foley Wines has been approached for comment.
David Cormack, who runs PR firm Draper Cormack, said the donations could put New Zealanders off the products.
Many New Zealanders would be deeply disappointed if they learned that some of their favourite so-called Kiwi brands were owned by a Trump-supporting American.
But Bodo Lang, head of marketing at the University of Auckland, said he thought it unlikely to make a difference.
Another marketing commentator, Ben Goodale, said the donations would be a corporate decision made in the United States, rather than anything to do with local winemakers and specific brands.
It would be a shame to vilify great Kiwi wines because the parent company donate to the worst US president in history.
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The Strange Saga Of Trump Winery
Patricia Kluge married one of the worlds wealthiest menand walked away with a record $100 million divorce settlement. She almost lost it all until Donald Trump entered the picture.
This story originally appeared in the November 2011 issue of Town & Country.
On the edge of the 2,000-acre estate in Charlottesville, Virginia, that she once owned, in the foyer of the model home she now rents, Patricia Kluge yanks off muddy wellies and slips on a pair of black Belgian loafers. Her dogs shuffle underfoot, angling for a belly rub. Kluge is still stunning at 63, and her green eyes give frequent sparks indicating amusement or impatience, especially in the presence of a journalist. Everything about me has been said before, she says with a wary glance. And not always correctly.
In the kitchen her formidable five-foot-10-inch bearing eases as she whisks vinaigrette for a salade niçoise. You will have wine, wont you? she asks in a British accent, the clipped edges somewhat softened by American custom. She uncorks a chilled bottle of Albemarle rosé from the vineyard just outside, the one she envisioned, planted from scratch, nurtured, and lost over a tumultuous decade. You will love it, she declares, and fills two glasses.
I absolutely adored my grandfather, and one of the most influential lessons I got from him was, Darling girl, get on with it. So, all my life I have sort of got on with it.
Welchs Grape Jelly With Alcohol: How Trumps Horrific Wine Became The Ultimate Metaphor For His Presidency
To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories.
I thought you needed something good to drink, the server said,slipping two glasses of deep-ruby-red wine in front of me and my guest.My guest was a nationally known wine expert. The server wanted toapologize for the wines I had made my guest taste for the previous 90minutes, which the server had brought to the table with mystified,foot-dragging reluctance.
This is not what you might expect from one of the largest wineries inthe United States, as Donald Trump called it in a bizarre aside duringa press conference following the deadly Charlottesville riots, in mid-August. Trump Winery isnt even the largest winery in Virginia,going by the standard industry measurement of cases produced per year:at about 45,000, it is behind two other Virginia wineries that eachproduce 60,000 cases. Trump Winerys claim, on its Web site, that it hasthe most acres planted in Vitis vinifera, the classic species of winegrape, of any East Coast vineyard, is also way off, according to thefact-checkers at PolitiFact. In his press conference after Charlottesville, the presidentalso called himself the owner of the Charlottesville winery. Hecertainly was the man who initially bought it, years ago, when heacquired it on the cheap from a bankrupt friend. But the owner today ishis son Eric.
The Trump Winery grounds, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Below, offerings from the Trump label.
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