A $44 million property in the Healdsburg countryside hit the real-estate market yesterday: The Medlock Ames winery and estate at 13414 Chalk Hill Rd. and tasting room at 3487 Alexander Valley Rd. I’ve reached out to the winery for more information about what this means, and why it’s happening; all I know for now is that the 20-year-old Medlock Ames brand and properties are listed for sale on sites like Redfin, Mayacama Luxury Real Estate, Coldwell Banker, etc. Here’s what the listing says:
Harvest the opportunity to own the most premier Chalk Hill winery and estate available for sale in Sonoma County, Medlock Ames, located at beautiful Bell Mountain in Healdsburg with an additional Alexander Valley tasting room. This sprawling vineyard estate sits majestically on 342 acres, of which 47 are prime Russian River and Alexander Valley appellation, providing the best of the best 92 to 96 point Cabernets and Chardonnays across the valley, yielding 8,000 cases with a capacity for 20,000 total.
Awarded with regenerative organic certification, this winery has the infrastructure and operations in place for future growth and offers 33 additional plantable acres. Neighboring Verite, Chalk Hill and Roth wineries, this property is uniquely divided into 4 distinct parcels separating the wine operations and hospitality from the three esteemed modern estate homes adorned with organic gardens, multiple pools/terraces, fitness centers and bocce court plus 140 acres with 3 building envelopes sub-dividable for additional development or expansion of hospitality services.
The Medlock Ames winery and estate is available for sale as a whole or can be purchased in individual parcels. Conveniently located minutes from the Sonoma airport and posh wine country town of Healdsburg.
Medlock Ames has gotten some major buzz over the past few years for becoming the first “regenerative organic certified” winery in Sonoma County — which means, according to the Press Democrat, that vintners are focusing on the health of the soil, which in turns helps mitigate climate change. The face of Medlock Ames, co-founder Ames Morrison, reportedly doubled down on this aspect of farming after the Kincade Fire tore through his Chalk Hill estate in 2019 — “turning much of its green pastures to black and in the process [destroying] more than 1,000 trees along with a couple miles of deer fence.” He also had to tear out and replant about 20% of his vines. After that, Ames said: “I did a lot of soul searching. I really wanted to understand what was going on with the environment and what our responsibility is.”
See footage here of the epic Medlock Ames plot out Chalk Hill.
Note from Simone: This piece originally appeared in the weekly email newsletter I write for the Healdsburg Tribune, called Healdsburg Today. Subscribe here!
