A 15-minute drive from Calistoga in the Napa Valley, Villa Montana is a 500-acre estate with an Italianate villa, guest house, caretaker’s cottage, and equestrian arena. 49ers legend Joe Montana, and his wife, Jennifer, built the home in 2003.
Set amid 500 acres of oak-studded rolling hills in the Napa Valley region, an Italianate villa owned by 49ers legend Joe Montana and his wife, Jennifer, arrived on the market Wednesday with a listing price of $28.9 million.
“When you’re at the top of the property, you’re looking dead straight on at Mount St. Helena and Knights Valley,” says Compass agent Avram Goldman who is co-listing the home with Tim Hayden. “It’s one of the most spectacular views in wine country. In the winter, when it does snow, it’s incredibly picturesque. It’s like a fantasy world.”
The property on the border of Sonoma and Napa counties was previously listed in 2009 by the Niner great for a poetic price of $49 million, before the Montanas took it off the market. This offering is separate from a second Calistoga ranch the Bay Area power couple listed earlier this month. That property — totaling about 87 acres and featuring equestrian facilities — is priced at $3.1 million.
The so-called “Villa Montana,” 20 miles from Calistoga, was custom-built for the Montanas who became enamored with the charm and splendor of European architecture on trips to Italy and France when Joe got breaks from the playing field. They imported furniture, architectural adornments and statuary to create an authentic home. The marble floors, sinks, window and door surrounds, and fireplaces are all antiques; iron gates date back to the 16th century and a church altar to the 17th century.
“I compare their property to a spectacular painting whether it be a Picasso or a Monet,” says Goldman. “They wanted it to have an authentic feel of an Italian villa. They really created that. It looks like they took a home from Italy, picked it up with a big helicopter and set it down here. You have the feeling it has been there for a long time but it has all the modern conveniences.”
Built over five years and completed in 2003, the estate has three bedrooms with three ensuite bathrooms and guest powder room spread across 9,700 square feet. To enter the front door, you walk a path lined with a wall made from 17th-century stone and cross over a bridge above a moat. Inside, the elaborate wood-beamed ceilings are vaulted. Turreted towers offer 360-degree views of Mount St. Helena and across the golden hills.
A wine cellar can hold up to 3,500 bottles and offers storage for olive oil. The Montanas produced 30 to 60 gallons of oil annually from olives grown in groves of ancient Tuscan varietal trees. There’s an indoor tasting room and outdoor terrace for tastings surrounded by vines producing white table grapes.
The grounds surrounding the home are landscaped with rose gardens, shade-giving cypress trees in addition to the olive trees and grape vines. Outdoor amenities offer opportunities for endless fun and include a swimming pool with an outdoor kitchen and pizza oven, a basketball court that doubles as a tennis court, a skeet shooting range, a pond for fly boarding and swimming, a bocce court and a large equestrian facility and arena along with trails for horseback-riding. Two streams cross the property and you can paddle a canoe down them.
A guest house has two bedrooms, one bathroom and an outdoor hot tub. There’s also a two-bedroom, two-bathroom caretaker’s cottage.
This isn’t the first time the Montanas put this home on the market. They listed the property in 2009 at the $49 million price, and according to a statement from the family, they “took it off soon after when their four children (now aged 27-33) begged them to keep it a few more years.”
The listing received offers but they decided not to sell at that time.
The Montanas now live in San Francisco where Joe invests in early-stage startups though his venture-capital firm, Liquid 2 Ventures. They are selling the Wine Country property as their children are starting their careers away from the North Bay.
