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Patricia Kluge: Billionaire's Ex-Wife Faces Foreclosure

Filed under: Estates, Wine, Real Estate Developments, Wealth, Architecture & Design

Patricia Kluge photos, Patricia Kluge house photos

Patricia Kluge, the 1980s society queen and ex-wife of billionaire media mogul John Kluge, has fallen on some hard times. Kluge was famously awarded the largest divorce settlement in history (a reported $1.6 million a week) but she seems to have figured out a way to spend it – and then some.

She's allegedly in default of nearly $23 million on her gilded mansion in Virginia, which made headlines for its outlandish $100 million price tag when it first hit the market in October 2009. Sotheby's didn't get that asking price, nor the drastically reduced $24 million it was eventually priced at. Instead, on Feb. 16, the 23,538-square-foot home will be auctioned on the Albemarle County courthouse steps.

Kluge's house isn't the only possession she's losing: Her antiques and jewelry have already been auctioned through Sotheby's. Her winery was foreclosed on and its inventory also sold off at auction. On top of that, several lots in the Vineyard Estates subdivision she devised for her property were also auctioned.

The Hook reported that according to court records, Kluge borrowed a whopping $66 million for the house, winery and subdivision.

How could Kluge have blown through her fortune and now lost it all?

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Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyards Fails To Sell At Auction

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine, Wealth

Back in October I mentioned that the Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyards was going through foreclosure and was in the hands of its lenders. It looks like it will stay there for a while. The property failed to sell at auction this week with bidders unwilling to top the Farm Credit Bank's opening bid of $19 million. The auction was for a total of 907 acres of property that included 164 acres of vineyards, the winery tasting room, six houses, offices and production buildings, a barrel storage cave and a former carriage museum.The Daily Progress reports that the Kluge Estate owes an estimated $34.8 million to Farm Credit for a loan taken out in 2007.

Patricia Kluge has thrown her heart, soul and no small amount of money into her Virginia wine business. Kluge and her husband and business partner Bill Moses have Albemarle House, their 45-room English style manor, on the market for $24 million (it was listed at $100 million last year) and earlier this year they sold off the contents at Sotheby's in a two-day buying bonanza that brought in $15.2 million. A sale of her jewelry brought in around $5 million.

Kluge Estate trustee Bill Shmidheiser said the bank hopes to sell the property and that $19 million is a good deal for any buyer because Kluge and Moses spent approximately $50 million creating the winery. The estate is set up to produce about 34,000 cases of wine per year, far larger than most smaller wineries in Virginia that produce around 5,000 cases per year. Another auction is scheduled for this weekend to sell off 15,000 cases of wine from the Kluge Estate.

Gallery: Kluge Estates Vineyard

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Kluge Vineyards Hit With Foreclosure

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine, Wealth

Patricia Kluge has thrown her heart, soul and no small amount of money into her Virginia wine business but that may not have been enough. C-Ville.com is reporting that Kluge Winery and Vineyard, the business that she and her husband Bill Moses opened in 1999, is in the hands of its lenders. Last month, Trevor Gibson, who had been the company's chief financial officer for five years, left Kluge Winery. Details of what happened aren't exactly clear but C-Ville.com has a statement from Bill Moses that says that the bankers have taken the first steps toward "dismantling the winery as an operating business as well as an auction of the property."

Kluge and Moses have Albemarle House, their 45-room English style manor, on the market for $48 million and earlier this year they sold off the contents at Sotheby's in a two-day buying bonanza that brought in $15.2 million. A sale of her jewelry brought in around $5 million.

TheHook.com says that a foreclosure notice list a total debt of $34,785,000. The assets of the Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyards include 907 acres in southern Albemarle County, 164 of which are vineyards. The sale would also include the Farm Shop and tasting room, as well as offices, production buildings, six employee houses, and a 34,000-square-foot former carriage museum. A sale scheduled for December 8 is set to take place at the vineyard office building on Grand Cru Drive in the southeastern part of the county while a second auction on December 11 in Madison would sell off 15,000 cases of Kluge Estate wine.

TheHook.com is also reporting that the lender Farm Credit filed a lawsuit against Kluge and Moses October 29 in Albemarle Circuit Court. According to that article, the couple also faced foreclosure on "Glen Love" a luxury spec house they developed at Vineyard Estates that was our estate of the day back in 2008 when it was listed at $6.8 million.

Kluge and Moses are still in negotiations with the lenders and may yet be able to save the winery before the auction.

Gallery: Kluge Estates Vineyard

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