Author: cathy-harding

Categories
News

Kluge auction fetches $20.2 million

The 52 percent discount was not in effect last week when Patricia Kluge’s furnishings went on sale. Though she dropped the price of Albemarle House, the 45-room English country-style home from which 933 lots of stuff were culled, to $48 million from her original $100 million, by midday Wednesday it seemed similar bargains would be scant. Sotheby’s organized the house auction, which followed a week of previews, and after the prize piece from the collection, a Qing Dynasty clock, sold for $3.8 million, more than three times the expected price, staff were practically giddy with delight.

This hand-colored lithograph of a California Hare, sold for $2,200, wasn’t the only item to move quickly at Sotheby’s auction of “The Collection of Patricia Kluge.” A pair of faux bamboo beds, expected to sell for $800 to $1,200, shot to $20,000, and a bison head brought in another $3,400.

But not everyone in the room shared those feelings—at least not on Wednesday morning, when the contents of Albemarle House’s many bedrooms went on the block. The price to slumber like a millionaire, Kluge-style, is north of $550,000, including a hammer price of $70,000 for the canopied bed that Pat and Bill (Moses, her husband) slept in. It had been estimated to fetch between $30,000 and $50,000.

“This is so depressing,” said an interior designer, who, with her husband, had traveled from Baltimore. “I thought I’d get something.”

Comparatively little of the serious bidding took place in the event hall on the lower grounds of Albemarle House, where Sotheby’s had set up two dozen-plus telephones and chairs enough to accommodate 200 people. “The bid is with J.R.,” auctioneer Lisa Hubbard, a winning Jane Lynch look-alike, announced, pointing to one of the many dapper Sotheby’s staff working with remote bidders. “The bid is with Alejandra …The bid is with Alistair…” 

“Good start, everyone,” Hubbard jocularly intoned, after the George III master bed sold—the first item of the day.

Later in the four-hour session, a pair of faux bamboo beds pitted six bidders against each other until the hammer went down on a $20,000 bid. The expected sale price had been $800 to $1,200. And a very commanding bison head, about the size of a Prius, sold for more than $3,400, slightly ahead of Sotheby’s estimate. 

Provenance is a byword in the auction trade: “From the collection of….” In Kluge’s case, Nancy Lancaster was an important previous owner of many of the furnishings that Kluge put on sale. The native Virginian (born at Mirador, a historic Greenwood mansion) was once reputed to have the greatest taste in the world, according to Sotheby’s—an aspiration that would be right in line with the baronial style of Albemarle House. Last week’s auction made clear that “From the collection of Patricia Kluge” carries a great deal of currency, too. Said the Baltimore designer who was chagrined by the prices even the smallest lamps were commanding, “This is all the new rich who want something to collect.”

Sotheby’s had estimated the sale would bring in about $9 million, on top of the $5 million that Kluge’s jewelry fetched in April. In fact, by the end of the first day, the register tallied $12.4 million. Total for the two days was $15.2 million.

Still, while this news will clearly thrill Sotheby’s and Mrs K., auction etiquette seems to dictate that bidders maintain a dour visage at all times—even when they prevail. All of which made the sale of Lot 552, “California Hare (Plate CXII) from the Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America,” a hand-colored lithograph after John James Audubon, that much more interesting. The winning bid went to a woman of certain years, seated in the room, who had bid on nothing else. “Sold for $2,200 to the lady,” announced Maarten ten Holder, a soft-faced, blue-eyed auctioneer who’d taken over from Hubbard. At which point the lady lifted from her chair, pumped two fists high into the air, collected her shopping bag and headed for the check-out counter. 

C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com. 

Categories
Living

Third winery opens in Louisa

 Sitting in her newly christened tasting room, Penny Martin says “she’s starting to learn to like” wine. It’s an unusual statement to come from a winery owner. Penny and her husband, Bobby, last month opened Weston Farm Vineyard & Winery in Louisa. About 150 people attended their grand opening last month in the self-styled tasting room that Bobby built and that is appointed with a long table covered in a red-checked, picnic-style tablecloth. But if both Martins are still somewhat lukewarm on wine (Bobby allows that he likes sweet wine and that’s about it), or at least in the learning phase, then what do they talk about with visitors who come by for a taste of the five wines they’ve just released? 

Bobby and Penny Martin, seen with Suzie, plan to subdivide about half of their 308-acre property for new housing, which will be out of sight of their new winery.

“People are interested in how we got started,” says Penny.

To wit, they had operated a cattle farm in Boyd’s Tavern and when it got too expensive to handle any longer, they bought the 308-acre farm property in Louisa with the notion of growing grapes and making wine. Drawn by the “agricultural thing,” as Bobby puts it, along with the beauty of the vines, they put in 12 acres in 2005, including Petit Verdot, Petit Manseng, Viognier, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Norton, about which more in a moment. Three and a half years into the project, they teamed up with Gabriele Rausse, the ubiquituous consultant, and that, they say, is when their education about how to drink and enjoy wine first started. 

The Martins’ endeavor rings everywhere of direct, hard work rather than the sophisticated appreciation of wine that new winery owners often express when they set up shop in this area. Bobby applied his 23 years experience as UVA’s head carpenter to building the winery and tasting room, which is modestly appointed with artifacts, such as glass bottles and door knobs, from the centuries-old farmhouse. “We were told one acre would cost $30,000 to put grapes in,” Bobby says, explaining his decision to till the loamy soil himself and plant, over the course of 30 days, some 4,600 vines. Homey touches at Weston Farm distinguish it further from some of the area’s sleeker wineries, including nine miniature donkeys on site and seven horses, rescued from abandonment.

And then there are the French bull dogs. Not only do their portraits grace the wine labels, but rotund Charlie and feisty Suzie keep strict watch over the property, too. “They’re on the label, because they’re our babies,” says Penny.

But what of the wines, which, after all, the Martins hope to sell—eventually some 2,000 cases worth? The vinifera reds are soft and lightly aromatic—not too big on acidity at this point. The rosé, with 7 percent residual sugar, is sweet. Steel tank-fermented Chardonnay, made from grapes they purchased from an Afton grower, is the most successful of the five from the 2009 vintage—crisp and appley.

Which gets us to the Norton. It’s not an easy wine to love, and Weston Farm’s Norton might not win any converts. Sharp and almost dank on the nose, nonetheless Weston’s is not as overpoweringly tannic as some Nortons can be. Overall, I’d call it chewy. “It’s definitely a good steak wine,” says Penny, the former cattle farmer. “I don’t like Norton,” says her husband. “Gabriele said, ‘Oh, I hate Norton, but this turned out good,’” Penny adds.

NEW C-VILLE COVER STORY: Living la vida local

We’re back for a second year with a list of firm recommendations and observations about what it takes to be a true local. If you’ve destroyed a beautiful friendship in an argument over the Meadowcreek Parkway, then you’re eligible for a Charlottesville tattoo, for sure. Not that tension and opinions are the sole hallmarks of a true insider. Get thee to Humpback Rocks and the Hamner Theater. Don’t be satisfied to just talk about what a beautiful and smart place this is; get out there and live it! Read this week’s cover story here, and don’t forget to leave your own suggestions in the comments. 

Categories
News

Kluge auction fetches $20.2 million

The 52 percent discount was not in effect this week when Patricia Kluge’s furnishings went on sale. Though she dropped the price of Albemarle House, the 45-room English country-style home from which 933 lots of stuff were culled, to $48 million from her original $100 million, by midday Wednesday it seemed similar bargains would be scant. Sotheby’s organized the house auction, which followed a week of previews, and after the prize piece from the collection, a Qing Dynasty clock, sold for $3.8 million, more than three times the expected price, staff were practically giddy with delight.

But not everyone in the room shared those feelings—at least not on Wednesday morning, when the contents of Albemarle House’s many bedrooms went on the block. The price to slumber like a millionaire, Kluge-style, is north of $550,000, including a hammer price of $70,000 for the canopied bed that Pat and Bill (Moses, her husband) slept in. It had been estimated to fetch between $30,000 and $50,000.

“This is so depressing,” said an interior designer, who, with her husband, had traveled from Baltimore. “I thought I’d get something.”

Comparatively little of the serious bidding took place in the event hall on the lower grounds of Albemarle House where Sotheby’s had set up two dozen-plus telephones and chairs enough to accommodate 200 people. “The bid is with J.R.,” auctioneer Lisa Hubbard, a winning Jane Lynch look-alike announced, pointing to one of the many dapper Sotheby’s staff working with remote bidders. “The bid is with Alejandra… The bid is with Alistair…”
“Good start, everyone,” Hubbard jocularly intoned, after the George III master bed sold—the first item of the day.

Later in the four-hour session, a pair of faux bamboo beds pitted six bidders against each other until the hammer went down on a $20,000 bid. The expected sale price had been $800 to $1,200. And a very commanding bison head, about the size of a Prius, sold for more than $3,400, slightly ahead of Sotheby’s estimate.

Provenance is a byword in the auction trade: “From the collection of….” In Kluge’s case, Nancy Lancaster was an important previous owner of many of the furnishings that Kluge put on sale. The native Virginian (born at Mirador, a historic Greenwood mansion) was once reputed to have the greatest taste in the world, according to Sotheby’s—an aspiration that would be right in line with the baronial style of Albemarle House. This week’s auction made clear that “From the collection of Patricia Kluge” carries a great deal of currency, too. Said the Baltimore designer who was chagrined by the prices even the smallest lamps were commanding, “This is all the new rich who want something to collect.”

Sotheby’s had estimated the sale would bring in about $9 million, on top of the $5 million that Kluge’s jewelry fetched in April. In fact, by the end of the first day, the register tallied $12.4 million. Total for the two days was $15.2 million.

Still, while this news will clearly thrill Sotheby’s and Mrs K., auction etiquette seems to dictate that bidders maintain a dour visage at all times—even when they prevail. All of which made the sale of Lot 552, “California Hare (Plate CXII) from the Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America,” a hand-colored lithograph after John James Audubon, that much more interesting. The winning bid went to a woman of certain years seated in the room who had bid on nothing else. “Sold for $2,200 to the lady,” announced Maarten ten Holder, a soft-faced, blue-eyed auctioneer who’d taken over from Hubbard. At which point the lady lifted from her chair, pumped two fists high into the air, collected her shopping bag and headed for the check-out counter.

Inside “The Collection of Patricia Kluge,” before the Sotheby’s auction

As in life, so much about the Sotheby’s auction of “The Collection of Patricia Kluge” depends on context. Viewed from page 436 of the auction catalogue, the tuffet in what’s called the “Pink Bedroom,” for instance, does not convey how well-matched are its rope base and paisley seat to the rest of the bedroom, appointed with twin beds and resplendent in rosy tones.

But a visit to Albemarle House itself, where are on view the contents of the auction that will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday this week and that is expected to bank Mrs. K something in the vicinity of $9 million (on top of the $5 million that her jewelry fetched in a Sotheby’s sale in April), makes the case for looking at things from a fuller point of view. Read more after the photo.

A garden view of Albemarle House, home to the contents of Sotheby’s auction of "The Collection of Patricia Kluge"

The highlight of the auction, an Imperial Tribute clock from the Qing Dynasty that is expected to sell for anywhere between $600,000 and $1 million, looks regal but rather lonely in the middle of the 620-page catalogue. Up close, it’s regal and rather well positioned over a super comfy leather sofa in the library.

The big question for buyers later this week will be whether they can set their own appropriate stage for Mrs. Kluge’s precious stuff. (Unless, of course, you’re going for some of the evening wear, in which case the issue is: Do you have an occasion at which to wear a size 14 Christian Lacroix limestone sleeveless summer silk dress? It’s really nice and only a couple of hundred dollars.)

Albemarle House, the property now vacated by Kluge and her husband, William Moses and on the market for a reduced price of $48 million, is a study in mimetic English country living. Though only a couple of decades old, it aspires to baronial traditions. As such, it makes no grand statements about individual taste, though it certainly trumpets wealth. Provenance, as they say in the auction trade, is important here. Who owned what before? What collection did it come from?

It’s not easy to discern what Kluge might have liked to surround herself with, but it’s clear how much of it she once preferred. The rooms are jammed with one “important” piece after another, “important” being another key auction-house reference point. And it’s this context of chock-a-block possessions—crafted of history and rich ingredients—that gives unexpected life to Kluge’s things. Even the downright gaudy French and Portuguese eel plate ($8,000 – $12,000 for the set of six) earns a certain dignity when it looms from high atop the family kitchen wall that it just can’t command on page 340. But what will it look like once you take it home?

We’ll be at the auction on Wednesday, so check back for more on the great Kluge downsizing.

Categories
Living

How is being a wine importer and distributor like being in the rag trade?

 When Smith Williams says, “I had to roll my shirt sleeves up,” reflecting on his early days with JW Sieg Wines, “and ride with the salespeople and learn the business from them,” he’s talking about real fine shirtsleeves. That’s because the former San Franciscan used to work for Saks Fifth Avenue. Then he joined his father-in-law, onetime beer kingpin Terry Sieg, in his new line of business—regional wine importing and distribution.

The August charity golf tournament, sponsored by JW Sieg Wines and held at Keswick Hall, will feature a winemaker’s dinner that, corporate VP Smith Williams, pictured with Marketing VP Ashley Williams, says, aims to “bring attention to Virginia as a winemaking region.”

Williams, the 3-year-old company’s corporate vice president, quickly discovered similarities between fashion and wine: “Certain brands are popular and certain styles are trendy.” But the differences are discernible, too. “We’re selling to everyone, from the tiniest restaurant up to Restaurant Eve in Alexandria.”

Clearly, not everyone can buy a shirt at Saks. But increasingly, everyone can—and does—buy wine. Williams confirms that the national trend is afoot in this area, too: Strong sales of wines that would retail for under $15.99. 

JW Sieg made a big play for sales staff from the other major regional wine distributor, Country Vintner, which some would say speaks to the company’s stringent competitiveness. Williams points to another quality that he hopes will define the company, too, as its local footprint grows—community roots. To that end, JW Sieg will sponsor a golf and wine weekend with Keswick Hall, August 7–9. The Music Resource Center will reap the proceeds from the golf tournament, which, according to press materials, will entail teams created by “a select group of the wine elite” playing 18 holes and tasting wines throughout the day. Call 434-923-4363 to register. “Not only is it good to do things for charities,” says Williams, “it’s good for business, too.”

•

Speaking of Keswick Hall, sommelier Richard Hewitt seems to have upped the wine game there again. Having created a private label wine for Fossett’s, the hotel’s high-end restaurant, he’s now overseeing a small vineyard, too. Keswick’s half-acre of Petit Manseng could yield its first harvest in either 2011 or 2012, and then it’s headed for private-label bottling.

•

Meanwhile, over at neighboring Keswick Vineyards (no relation to the hotel), the grand property, which, with an estate, guesthouse, and 43-acre vineyard, had been on the market for $12.5 million, is no longer for sale. Times being what they are for pricey real estate, the brass at the winery has opted instead to open the property to weddings and corporate events.

•

Finally, a couple of weeks ago we interviewed Todd Kliman about The Wild Vine, his biography, if you will, of the Norton grape, the only grape native to American soil to be successfully (some would argue) turned into wine. Kliman called last week troubled by the editing of one of his answers, namely, on the topic of Norton winemaker Jenni McCloud’s sex-change operation. Here then, is an expanded version of his answer: 

“I was not interested in writing a book that proclaims my love of wine or my love of a grape. I’m interested in Norton because of its history and its people. To me, Norton is the outsider grape. It’s a story of outsiders, and people on the margins. Jenni’s story is part and parcel of that. 

“I am always interested in the moment when people become galvanized by something. Norton is this double blow. To me this story is reinvention. And Jenni is the ultimate story in reinvention. Those decisions to leave behind this life as a businessman and a very hard-charging life in the tech world and embrace this Jeffersonian idea of a gentlewoman farmer—this is the double helix of her life.”

Categories
News

Tracey Ullman to address new citizens at Monticello

Monticello has announced that comedienne Tracey Ullman will be the featured speaker at its annual naturalization ceremony on July 4. Those hoping for her dead-on impersonations of Arianna Huffington, David Beckham or Rachel Maddow, or perhaps, more crudely, her version of Suzanne Somers hawking the “Vagisizer” on an infomercial, or Laura Bush anticipating life back on the ranch (“George can sleep 20 hours a day instead of his 16 and catch up on needed rest”), will likely have to wait. 

Who understands America better than Tracey Ullman, the comic genius that gave “The Simpsons” its start? An American citizen since 2006,  she’ll share her insights at the Monticello swearing-in ceremony on July 4.

Ullman became a naturalized citizen in 2006, in order to be able to vote, after 25 years of living in the United States. And, as C-VILLE TV critic Eric Rezsnyak notes, her greatest genius lies in her ability to see everyday Americans with uncanny perception and then exaggerate our mannerisms until we see ourselves. In other words, expect in her speech something lively, affectionate, and comparatively straightforward.

As Monticello’s speaker, on a day that will see scores of new Americans take the oath of citizenship, Ullman joins a long list of naturalization ceremony speakers from the arts and politics. They include Madeleine Albright, Andrew Young, I.M. Pei, and, two years ago to mild protest, President George W. Bush. 

Ullman, star of “Tracey Ullman’s State of the Union,” is not the first TV star to take the podium. Sam Waterston (ba-buh, buh buh buh buh buh) spoke at Monticello in 2007. But she’s the first with a direct link to “The Simpsons,” another cultural touchstone that skewers everything that makes America maddening and great. (“The Simpsons” first aired as an entr’acte on Ullman’s Fox program “The Tracey Ullman Show”). As Rezsnyak says, “while she mocks Americans for our indulgences and borderline grotesqueness, she really loves this country, probably more than many people who were born here.”

C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com. 

Comedienne Tracey Ullman to address new citizens at Monticello






Monticello has announced that comedienne Tracey Ullman will be the featured speaker at its annual naturalization ceremony on July 4. Those hoping for her dead-on impersonation of Arianna Huffington, David Beckham or Rachel Maddow, will likely have to wait. Ullman became a naturalized citizen in 2006, in order to be able to vote, after 25 years of living in the United States. Expect in her speech something lively, affectionate, and comparatively straightforward.




 

As Monticello’s speaker, on a day that will see scores of new Americans take the oath of citizenship, Ullman joins a long list of naturalization ceremony speakers from the arts and politics. They include Madeleine Albright, Andrew Young, I.M. Pei, and, two years ago to mild protest, President George W. Bush.

 

Since 1963, more than 3,000 people from all over the world have been sworn in as new American citizens at Monticello. The morning event is free and open to the public.

 

City 19-year-old charged with January murder

Charlottesville Police yesterday arrested Demonte Marquis Burgess in connection with the January 22 murder of Miguel Salazar and the shooting of Rafael Valina Ayala, at Mountain View Mobile Park in the 1600 block of 6th Street SE. Burgess is 19.

There are five additional felony counts against Burgess tied to the January shooting. In addition to those charges, he faces four other charges "related to an incident that occurred on May 9, 2010 in Albemarle County," according to the news release from Police Chief Tim Longo.

Police are giving no other information at this time.

Reports at the time of the January incident said that Salazar, 32, was shot in the head. Arriving at the scene, police found four Hispanic men, including Ayala, who was shot in the shoulder. According to the preliminary reports, the group had been approached by two African-American males. Following a confrontation and gunshots being fired, those two men fled the scene.

Demonte Burgess, 19, was arrested yesterday afternoon in connection with the January murder of Miguel Salazar.

Categories
Living

Virginia's first lady, Maureen McDonnell, gets behind the local wine biz

You have to hand it to Virginia First Lady Maureen McDonnell: She can tell a joke. Leading a contingent of 30 restaurant and retail people from Richmond and Virginia Beach to Jefferson Vineyards last week, as part of her effort to promote Virginia wines, she listened cheerfully while winemaker Andy Reagan described his success with the 2009 Pinot Gris, freshly bottled in November. “Sounds like November 2009 was good for you just like for my husband,” she said, knocking back the discreet pour in her glass. 

Marketing muscle at work: Hosting restaurant and retail buyers, First Lady Maureen McDonnell (pictured) and Agriculture Secretary Todd Haymore plan to tour wineries across Virginia. Last week they started their Charlottesville tour at Jefferson Vineyards.

The event, shepherded by the Virginia Wine Marketing Board, which also included stops at Veritas and White Hall Vineyards, was the first of a series of such statewide visits to come. “It’s very smart,” Short Pump restaurateur Christy Ottaviano said of the move to involve the First Lady—as well as Agriculture Secretary Todd Haymore—in Virginia wine promotion. The Wine Loft, the establishment she runs with her husband Jeff, serves 70 wines by the glass and even more by the bottle. “We try to support the local industry,” Jeff said, “but initially it can be a hard sell.”

As reported last week, there has been more than casual concern that a bill recently introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives will make everything harder for the wine industry nationwide by preventing wineries from shipping directly to consumers. But when we stole a minute with Haymore at Jefferson, he was more sanguine about it. “I understand the bill has a lot of opponents and some in Washington have told me it’s a nonstarter. The bill has a long way to go,” he said, noting that it has not a single Virginia co-sponsor. 

•

Speaking of Virginia grapes, Washingtonian Magazine food critic Todd Kliman has just published The Wild Vine, which comes as close to being a potboiler as a book about a native American grape can possibly be. Virginia figures large in the story, what with TJ failing after 50 years of trying to produce wine on his estate and then, in the early 19th century, a heartbroken Richmond doctor by the name of Daniel Norton developing a grape that could survive in North American soil. He gave that grape his name and a century and a half later it found its champion in Virginia winemaker Jenni McCloud, whose Middleburg winery, Chrysalis Vineyards, produces wine from a variety of unusual grapes. 

We got Kliman on the horn the other week for a brief discussion of The Wild Vine.

Working Pour: What informed your choice to reveal Jenni McCloud’s sex change operation in the midst of a story about an American grape?

Todd Kliman: I was not interested in writing a book that proclaims my love of wine or my love of a grape. I’m interested in Norton because of its history and its people. To me, Norton is the outsider grape. It’s a story of outsiders, and people on the margins. Jenni’s story is part and parcel of that.

Always interested in the moment when people become galvanized by something. Norton is this double blow. To me this story is reinvention. And Jenni is the ultimate story in reinvention. Those decisions to leave behind this life as a businessman and very hard charging life in the tech world and embrace this Jeffersonian idea of a gentlewoman farmer—this is the double helix of her life.

WP: As you note, many people object to Norton’s foxiness in its taste. Even Jenni admits it needs a lot of age on it to be tamed.

TK: It’s a wine of extremes. I happen to like Norton; it’s very much a food wine. It’s not the wine you’re going to sip late at night by the fireplace. There are certainly going to be people who read the book, pick up a bottle of wine and say, “This is terrible.” That’s O.K. This is a highly personal book. This is not a brief on behalf of Norton. 

WP: What did you drink last night?

TK: My mom and I have a book group. Last night we had a South African Shiraz and a Mas Carlot Rosé. It was a beautiful color, like crushed strawberries and cream.