J. Tobias Beard has an excellent story in my local paper, C-Ville Weekly, on the rise and fall of Patricia Kluge, a stripper-turned-wealthy divorcee, who bet her fortune on land speculation and overpriced wine and lost everything:
In 2002, the Kluge Estate New World Red entered the world in an ebony trimmed wooden box designed by David Albert Charles Armstrong-Jones, a.k.a. Viscount Linley, son of Princess Margaret, nephew of the Queen and 14th in line for the British throne. There were only 289 of these beauties made, signed by the winemaker, naturally, but also by the winery owner, who saw fit to slap an embossed profile of her swollen head on every bottle. She also slapped a $495 price tag on the wine, by far the highest price we’re ever likely to see on a wine from Virginia.
Eight years later Kluge Estate Winery & Vineyard would be moribund, ending not with a bang, but with a fire sale. The New World Red, having long ago lost its royal trappings, would end its life being sold for $10.96 at a Downtown wine shop. Instead of being displayed in a custom case, customers were carrying it off by the caseload.
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Wow fascinating story! I live in Lynchburg and during a charlottesville wine tour visited this black-cloud foreclosing winery and picked up a cheap case of decent wine… employees were fairly depressed, the place was all packed in boxes… it was rather strange. Incredible to learn the back story thanks for posting! Doesn’t seem odd now really… what do you expect from a completely unlearned/unearned ‘entrepreneur’? Reminds me of Ezekiel 16.
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