Donald Trump invests $8 million in a winery

Virginia’s fledgling wine industry got a global boost Tuesday from Donald Trump’s millions of dollars, his celebrity and his luxury properties worldwide where wine from his new vineyard will be a staple.

Trump and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell formally opened a winery near the presidential estates of Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe on Tuesday.

Trump paid about $8 million for the 770-acre winery and the equipment on it near Charlottesville at public auction in April from millionaire socialite Patricia Kluge, said Virginia Agriculture Secretary Todd Haymore.

“We are building and will continue to build something, I think that will continue to put Virginia on the map in terms of wines and champagnes and everything,” Trump told a crowd of wine enthusiasts, local business and finance leaders and the politically connected. “This will be one of the great wineries anywhere in the world — not in this country but anywhere in the world.”


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