Home owning for oenophiles

Small vineyards attract wine enthusiasts

There are more than a few buying opportunities in Wine Country and Central Valley for those among us who dream of owning a large property with a vineyard.

Realtor Terry Wunderlich of Terra Firma Global Partners believes one of her listings in Napa provides the perfect spot for someone who wants a taste of growing wine grapes. At 3460 Mount Veeder Road, roughly two of the estate’s 21.7 acres play home to a fallow vineyard. The property’s next owner could rip out the existing vines for virtually whatever varietal they like.

“Two acres is perfect for hobbyist,” Wunderlich said. “It’s just enough for your own use and fun and get your toe into farming.”

Once you start dedicating around four or five acres to wine grapes, you’re harvesting enough to start selling and creating a stream of income, said David Ashcraft of Vintroux, who is listing 24129 Turkey Road in Sonoma, where Pinot Noir vines sprout from roughly half of the 8.5acre estate.

“Small vineyards could be considered landscaping, but once you cross that threshold, it’s more an enterprise that requires farming and vineyard management,” Ashcraft said.

Growing wine grapes for sale also opens the door to a variety of tax benefits. For growers who sell their fruit, expenses related to maintenance and upkeep of the vineyard can be written off come tax time.

Some vineyard properties can even capitalize on the Williamson Act, a California law which offers financial relief on property taxes for eligible owners of farmland and open spaces who agree not to develop the land or change

its use for the next 10 years.

Ashcraft, a Sonomabased Realtor with two decades of selling vineyard estates, said the buying demographic tends to shift as more of a property’s land gets devoted to wine grapes.

“It’s a different buyer pool,” he said. “It’s people who have a

passion about wine and growing things.”

Gary Reiff is one of those people. Reiff has 4.5 acres of Viognier grapes and 4.5 acres of Syrah grapes as part of his 20acre estate in Clements, an unincorporated part of San Joaquin County that falls under the umbrella of Lodi’s

American Viticultural Area.

Reiff estimates he grows about six or seven tons of wine grapes per acre every year. That fruit goes through Kevin Pitto, a wine contractor based in Acampo, who lumps Reiff ’s grapes in with other small lots for bulk sales to wineries both near and far.

For the last three years, Syrah grapes grown by Reiff have been shipped to the East Coast, where boutique wineries in states like Maine use California grapes to make their vintages.

“You have a lot of winemakers on the East Coast who are interested in California grapes,” Reiff said.

Brandt Pemberton / 39pixels A tranquil water features pours into a saltwater pool at 25120 Highway 88 in Clements, a 20acre estate that includes a fishing pond, 750 feet of frontage along the Mokelumne River and 10 acres of vineyards.

Brandt Pemberton / 39pixels Above: A fireplace with a stone surround stretching from floortoceiling warms the living room of 25120 Highway 88 in Clements, a 20acre estate with 10 acres of vineyard that’s listed at $1.54 million. Below: The property includes a detached, twostory structure that houses a wine storage room with builtin racks.