Clintons serve Kluge’s wine at daughter’s wedding
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Barbara Kinney / AP
Over the weekend, guests held to secrecy at the year’s most talked about $3 million wedding, which created mayhem in the little town of Rhinebeck, New York, enjoyed some Virginia wine from Pat Kluge’s vineyard.
“Kluge’s SP Blanc de Blanc and SP Rosé sparklers were served at Chelsea Clinton’s rehearsal dinner and reception,” says Kluge’s Kristin Moses, who was also held to secrecy about the event. “ It’s cool that Virginia wine, as opposed to the many New York wines at this New York state wedding, and Kluge were able to get that spotlight.”
Of course, it didn’t hurt to know the Clintons, as Pat Kluge and her husband Bill Moses do. While Kristen, Bill’s daughter, says they weren’t invited to the high-security nuptials, they sent wine as a wedding gift.
“But then the caterer called and asked if they could serve it at the wedding,” says Moses. “So they must have liked it.”
For those who missed the coverage, the Chelsea Clinton Wedding Watch website will get you all caught up.
If the Clintons paid for the wine they used, perhaps the Kluge winery could do the “right thing” and donate the proceeds to The Haven or the Blue Ridge Food Bank. A $3 million wedding is disgusting in hard economic times, no matter how much money the family has.
If the Clintons did NOT pay for the wine, perhaps the Kluge winery could do the “right thing” and donate an equivalent amount of wine to The Haven or the Blue Ridge food bank. These are the people who could really “enjoy” a nice blanc de blanc at this particular moment in history.
And THIS would really be newsworthy. In fact, it would guarantee international publicity. ;0)
Not the best wine
Janus, does your business donate an equivalent amount of goods or services to the Haven or the Blue Ridge Food Bank when it makes a sale? As for the idea of donating wine to the homeless shelter, wouldn’t be easier to go straight to those in need and just leave a few cases in the park across the street?
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Congrats to Mrs. Kluge;
Why would Mrs. Kluge need to donate the proceeds from the wine she sold, Janus? Sounds like class envy. She paid her taxes and runs a business that employs people. I hope she takes her profits and puts them back to work in the economy so more jobs can be created.
But I certainly wouldn’t tell her what to do with her hard earned profits.
Entitlement, plain and simple. Its none of your business whether they donated the wine or sold it. Its their money, their business and they owe YOU or CHARLOTTESVILLE anything. Freakin’ get over yourself. This city and its mentality….
And spending 3 million is this economy is exactly whats needed. Where do you think that money went. Jobs!! Im sure caterers, photographers, florist all appreciated it.
Bad people deserve bad wine. Justice was served.
As long as they poured all that wine into the sink and refilled the bottles with “two buck chuck” they’d be OK. Otherwise not, since Virginia Wine, pretensions aside, is only suitable for cooking.
Central Virginia is such a hoot with all its “world class city” posturing when people out in the rest of the world always ask me: isn’t Charlottesville that place in North Carolina with the big hub airport? And would anyone anywhere outside this area drink the swill local vineyards produce?
If they had Kluge Wine at that ceremony, it’s a sure bet currying favor for some reason was at the root of it.
Who Cares??
oh angel eyes you troll you. You opinion of our wine has cut us to the quick.
Please stop repeating the phony rumor that the wedding cost 3 million. The cost was well under a million.
Simply amazing!!!!I will not say who cares….because it is newsworthy and both the Clintons and Kluges have many good deeds that they have done…The rich do things differently….if you dont like it…get different cards..that pair is not holding too well against that 3 of a kind..
Honus - Lalala nice lady
The major media outlets ALL disagree with you. A simple Google search shows everyone from AP, to Reuters, to MSNBC, all peg this wedding at between 3 and 5 MILLION dollars. Here is just one of the 56,800 references from Google.
http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-clinton-wedding-costs,0,106194.story
I agree with angel eyes, the Virginia wine I’ve had was too bitter. I talked with a local about it and they agreed with me, saying it has something to do with the soil here and that this problem extends to Virginia wines in general. Admittedly I haven’t had a Kluge wine specifically, but I’m not in a hurry to either.
And yes, this area does like to posture itself, doesn’t it? :D I don’t know if I’ve ever seen such a gap/schism between poor rural folk and rich, pretentious, wine sipping, hot air balloon riding, art gallery owning townies in any other place I’ve lived, and I’ve lived in the four corners of the U.S. The gap here is just stunning.
While I see the importance of this type of news (and I am glad this is a happy affair too), where’s the real news? I am seeing a lot more on 29 and newsplex that seem far more newsworthy….Hawes, you’re slippin’….give us something real to chew on….
Mr. Brown if a personalized plate is obscene you are welcome to report it and DMV can recall it. Even free expression has it limits.
BTW Mr. Brown, do you have a lovley daughter? that’s what Herman has lead us to believe ;)
vanity plates refers to stupid combinations of numbers and letters and ampersands (and, in CA, hearts) such as mr. brown was referring to, not paying $10 to remember 9/11 (is a license plate really necessary for that?) or tell people you like puppies.
Not the first time local wine was served to a president. Theodore Roosevelt had wine from the Monticello Wine Company served at the White House. He dsicovered it in one of his visits to “Pine Knot” his hunting lodge in the county.
And of course Thomas Jefferson was very interested in vinoculture and winemaking.
@ Orchid - Apparently St. Halsey has no clue what a vanity plate is. Hence, his “taking himself too seriously” lecture, comments about logic, and something thrown in about eating “literally Cheerios.”
But thank you for understanding what I was referring to!
Back to the subject at hand - maybe I need to give Virginia wines another try, I don’t know. Anybody have a good recommendation?
Virginia wines go great with nuptuals and knuckle sammiches!!!
Oh boooo! don’t you like it when you get trolled back- you really don’t have an answer for why some personalized plates aren’t vanity do you?
There are good, ok and awful virginia wine. No one is saying any different I only like three or four of the vineyards. Perhaps you haven’t had any of the good ones yet. I think the Kluge sparkling use to be very nice but pricey but her first maker left and went out on his own to produce a much better sparkling . He teamed up with a french champagne house to produce a very nice wine- better than Kluge’s.
Try some more before being so dismissive of the whole industry here. I’m sure the wine industry is only growing by leaps and bounds here becaue we are all too vain to attempt it will never catch on.
Strange- every time I see or read about Bill Clinton or his family, I think about Ms Lewinsky………too bad. I just can’t find anything else that comes to mind immediately. This is such an inbred family……….
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Any comment that a flunky @ The Hook might disagree with, you can bet your glass of rot-gut Kluge wine is going to be deleted by a “moderator.”
I work at Barboursville Vineyard part time. I would recommend the Viognier, Chardonnay Reserve, Cab Franc and Octagon. If you visit while I am there the wine tasting is on me. I also like Veritas wine, have not tried Kluge and am not sure if they comp industry professionals like most vineyards do. If someone sent me free wine, I would certainly serve it to my guests.