'Welch's grape jelly with alcohol': Nationally-recognized wine expert unimpressed after daring to try Trump Wine
A Chardonnay from Trump Winery. Image via Eli Christman/Creative Commons.
December 26, 2017
Given that President Donald Trump used the tragic death of Heather Heyer at the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia earlier this year to plug the winery his family owns in the same city, one writer (with the help of a wine expert) endeavored to try the wines.
As Corby Kummer wrote in Vanity Fair, there appear to be only two restaurants that sell Trump wines -- the restaurant at the controversial Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, and the Trump Grill in the president's Manhattan tower. Kummer and his friend, who he describes only as a "nationally known wine expert," dined together at the former -- where the waiter appeared embarrassed at having to sell the president's wine.
"We sell these because we have to," the waiter reportedly said with a "theatrical eye-roll."
The 2015 Trump Meritage tasted like "Welch’s grape jelly with alcohol," Kummer's expert friend said. "A terrible, fumy, alcoholic nose. If I served you that on an airline you’d be mad."
Of the winery's sparkling "blanc de blanc," the expert was a bit more equivocal: “It’s fine."
"It doesn’t offend," he continued. "I’d get drunk on it at a wedding." After a pause, he added: "let’s be honest, I’d get drunk on anything at a wedding."