Some news organizations recently reported that a boycott against Trump wines, made here in Virginia, had backfired. In this age of fake news, it turns out there is more to the story.
During the last presidential election, Barack Obama took a swipe at the wine produced at a Charlottesville, Virginia vineyard owned by Donald Trump.
“I want to know what that wine tastes like. You know that’s like some $5 wine," he joked. " They slap a label on it. They charge you $50, saying that’s just the greatest wine ever!”
In fact, a bottle of sparkling white purchased here at the toney, wood paneled tasting room of Trump’s vineyard sells for $34 -- $27 at ABC stores, and wine seller Robert Harllee says it got good reviews even before Trump bought the property.
“Trump wines are excellent," he says. "The people are the same people who have been making the wines for years, and they do a great job.”
Sales have grown steadily since the president’s son Eric took charge. Last year, the company sold more than 78-hundred bottles through state-owned liquor stores – an increase of 107% over 2015.
Business is so good that the president’s son, Eric, who manages the vineyard, recently asked for permission to hire 23 more guest workers from Mexico to tend the vines.
But Trump wine has its detractors.
Priscilla Martin is a certified sommelier and wine buyer in Charlottesville. She likes to buy local, but given the president’s rhetoric on immigrants, she won’t recommend Trump wine to her clients.
“We as a restaurant industry, especially right now, are trying to stand together to support the people who run our restaurants,” she explains.
And she’s not the only one talking about boycotting Trump. A Charlottesville group launched a campaign -- #stoptrumpwine – back in November, and the San Francisco-based #GrabYourWallet put Wegmans supermarkets on it’s No Buy list, because it sells Trump wine at its 10 stores in Virginia.
The subject came up last month at a public forum hosted by a Northern Virginia chapter of the National Organization for Women. There wasn’t much discussion and no vote was taken, but a few days later, chapter president Hala Ayala got a voicemail from a reporter at the Washington Post.
“She’s like, ‘I hear you plan to boycott Trump wine,’" Ayala recalls. "I’m thinking to myself, ‘No. What are they talking about?’ So I didn’t return the phone call, but what I did was call our national office.”
The group’s national President said there was no boycott, and the state president – Diana Egozcue – suspects foul play.
“They fed a fake news story to the Washington Post," Egozcue surmises. "The other day I was getting calls from Minnesota, telling me to ‘grow up. He’s our president.’ You know I wasn’t home, so I couldn’t take it, but I would have told the person, ‘Y’know, you fell for fake news.’”
Others who picked up the story include the Huffington Post, the Washington Times, Fredericksburg Freelance Star and Fox News.
“So what happened?" said the gleeful host of Red Eye. "Wegmans refused to cave, and Trump supporters started buying up all the wine. Tweeted one fan: ‘Love Wegman’s!’ And now I’m going to buy a case of Trump wine and have a toast for all the left cry babies. So mission accomplished National Organization for Women. You got Trump wine off the shelves.”
Wegman’s couldn’t say, of course, who bought the wine or why, and it carried fewer than 50 bottles here at its Charlottesville store, but at the Market Street Wine Shop nearby, proprietor Robert Harllee says not everyone who asks for the brand is a fan of Donald Trump.
“In Charlottesville I think more people do it as kind of a lark or a joke or something funny for their friends," he says. "They take it out of state with them. It’s all been very good natured.”
Wegman’s says it considers only one thing – consumer demand – when deciding whether to carry a product.