Hotel and real estate magnate Donald Trump announced Monday he will not renew Patricia Kluge's contract as vice-president of the Trump Winery.
Trump purchased Kluge's Albemarle County winery at an April 2011 bank auction for $6.2 million. Kluge's one-year contract with the winery, operated by Trump's son Eric, has expired, although Kluge will continue to work with the winery on a contract basis, winery officials say.
"We both had one-year contracts," said Bill Moses, Kluge's husband and current GM at Trump Winery, according to the New York Post. "The headlines are all punning on that show." Trump's reality TV show The Apprentice often features its host shouting the phrase "you're fired!" at would-be Trump Tower acolytes.
"The contract expired, and she didn't want to renew it," Moses said. "She's got a lot of other projects she's working on." Moses indicated that the break was amicable.
The business associated with the vineyard was estimated to be worth $75 million in 2008, however in the economic downturn that followed the venture soon found itself in default as it failed to renegotiate two hefty loans from the Farm Credit Bank of Virginia.
Kluge and Moses owned then-named Kluge Estates Vineyard and Winery and turned it into the state's largest planted vineyard. They tried to take their product nationwide in 2007, just prior to the Great Recession, and took an estimated $34.8 million from Farm Credit Bank that April.
