Ex 49er Joe Montana is selling his wine country estate... for $49 million.

[Auggie]

Football great Joe Montana and his wife, Jennifer, have listed their 500-acre estate, with acreage in Sonoma County's wine country, for $49 million.

The Calistoga property includes a 9,700-square-foot Tuscan-inspired main house, an equestrian center, two year-round creeks, a pond, a regulation-sized basketball court, a skeet shooting range, a caretaker's residence, a guesthouse, a swimming pool with a spa, a gym, a boccie ball court and a producing olive farm.

The main house has a loggia open to the outdoors, a sitting room in an upstairs tower and a climate-controlled wine cellar and tasting room. There are three bedrooms and 3 1/2 bathrooms.

Designed for indoor-outdoor living, the home has a courtyard with hand-painted frescoes, antique statues and fountains. The Montanas often take guests up in the outdoor viewing tower, which has panoramic views of Mount Saint Helena and Knights Valley.

MORE: http://www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/hotprop/la-hmw-hotpropmontana6-2009nov06,0,3288478.story



I have a friend who owns property contiguous to this estate. The undeveloped areas are as wild as you can imagine. It's a stunning location.

[Wapsie B]

1. I wonder why he'd sell it?

Sounds like a slice of heaven to me.

[Auggie]

2. Maybe he lost money in his fund, HRJ Capital:

S.F. Chronicle, 11-12-09 (Bottom Line - Andrew S. Ross):
________________

Ronnie Lott is no longer associated with the once-high-flying fund-of-funds, HRJ Capital (H for Harris Barton, R for Ronnie Lott and J for Joe Montana).

In an e-mail obtained by peHub, a private equity online newsletter, Switzerland's Capital Dynamics, which took over management of the firm in April, thanked Lott for "for his contributions to the company and wish him well in his future endeavors."

As reported at the time, HRJ owed Silicon Valley Bank $68.9 million, and shutdown appeared imminent.

Not much more is known beyond the surmise that Lott's services were no longer required, and Barton's still are.

As for their former 49er teammate, last we heard Montana, who quit HRJ in 2005, put his 500-acre "Tuscan-inspired" Calistoga home-away-from-home on the market for a Joe-cool $49 million.


LINK: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/11/BUO21AI9NC.DTL#ixzz0WfE2FdLl

[Wapsie B]

3. Ah yes, losing their shirts in Silly Valley.

That would explain it.

[Brigid]

4. I wonder how long it will take him to sell it.

Who has $49 million these days?

[Auggie]

5. Good location for a winery

It already has the cache needed to attract tourists -- just add a winery out back.

Francis Ford Coppola had so many tourists coming to his Niebaum estate in St. Helena that he had to close down the tasting room/museum and build another facility just to handle the crowds.

[Arugula Latte]

6. Jeez. If I had that kind of money I'd just buy a place in Tuscany.

Sonoma is gorgeous, though, and not far from my wonderful Berkeley and also San Francisco.