Steamy temperatures aside, it’s not turning out to be such a hot summer for Kluge Estate, the business incarnation of local millionaire Patricia Kluge. First, the company’s boutique gas station/bistro/café, Fuel Co., closed abruptly on June 30. Now, Kluge Estate is being sued in Albemarle County Circuit Court by a cleaning service for unpaid bills that total a wince-worthy $22,847.
 In Patricia Kluge’s business empire, a few details seem to have fallen through the cracks. |
Specialty Cleaning, owned by Wilton Spencer, is a local company that snagged the Kluge contract back in May 2005. Specialty was supposed to clean offices and a carriage house for a weekly fee of $400; records show that, starting with invoices sent in April 2006, the fees went unpaid and, while Specialty nonetheless continued cleaning for another full year, the balance quickly mounted to well over $22,000.
A lawsuit over an unpaid cleaning bill would seem to be an embarrassment for someone like Kluge, who has worked diligently to make her ex-husband John Kluge’s last name into a brand that signifies the good life in general and Virginia wine in particular. Kluge and her current spouse, Bill Moses, have been major donors in support of Piedmont Virginia Community College’s viticulture and enology programs, and Kluge Estate has aimed to make its wines a flagship brand of the rapidly growing local wine industry. But then again, Kluge told C-VILLE back in 2004 (when she made the C-VILLE 20 list) that she planned to make Fuel Co. a national chain—and that certainly didn’t pan out.
Spencer declined to comment for this story and his attorney did not return our calls; Kluge spokeswoman Kristin Moses Murray also refused comment. However, the latter, asked if it would be too hasty to conclude that the company is having financial difficulties—giving the closing of Fuel Co. and these apparently unpaid bills—answered succinctly, "Yes."
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