Historic Knights Valley ranch for sale at $39 million

One of Sonoma County’s largest rural properties, a nearly 8,000-acre cattle ranch, is on the market in Knights Valley for ?$39 million.

The Santa Angelina Ranch sits nestled amid rolling hills and steep mountains between Mount St. Helena and The Geysers.

The 12-square mile property includes a five-bedroom main house of 3,288 square feet and a smaller, original ranch house built in 1882 and restored in 1981. The ranch also contains a swimming pool, horse barns and a helicopter hangar.

“We believe it’s one of the largest, if not the largest, landholding that’s privately held in Sonoma County,” said Will Densberger, an agent with Pacific Union Christie’s International in St. Helena.

The ranch features two year-round streams with native steelhead trout and is home to a large population of blacktail deer.

The property belongs to the descendants of the late Henry A. and Doris McMicking, who purchased the ranch in 1960.

A former mayor of Atherton, Henry McMicking and his brother Joseph founded one of California’s first venture capitalist firms and provided key funding for pioneer technology in audio and video tape recording. After his death in 2008 at the age of 89, McMicking’s family wrote that his greatest enjoyment was spending time at the Sonoma County ranch surrounded by family and friends.

The roughly 7,877-acre property has been placed under conservation easements with the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District. The easements limit certain development but allow for the construction of a winery and an equestrian center, provided the owners can obtain needed government approvals.

Densberger estimated that potentially ?300 to 400 acres of the property are suitable for vineyards.

The ranch sits in a scenic valley with no visible commercial development, Densberger said. Even so, it lies relatively close to popular Wine Country destinations in both Napa and Sonoma Counties.

“You’re 15 minutes from the square in Healdsburg and 15 minutes from downtown Calistoga,” he said.

Asked why the property has gone on the market, Densberger replied that family members are “not utilizing it the way that they used to” and feel it’s a good time “to put it in the hands of somebody else who would enjoy it.”

Pacific Union International senior vice president Rick Laws, who produces The Press Democrat’s monthly housing report, said the sales price, if obtained, likely would set a record.

“It if did close, it would be the largest on-market sale that I’m aware of,” Laws said.

Earlier this year, Densberger represented French winemakers Alfred and Melanie Tesseron, owners of Bordeaux’s Château Pontet-Canet winery, in their $18.1 million purchase of a 650-acre estate that had belonged to the late Robin Williams. The hilltop property, which straddles Sonoma and Napa counties, originally had been listed in 2012 for $35 million.

One of the listing agents on the Williams property, Cyd Greer of Coldwell Banker Brokers of the Valley in St. Helena, is co-listing Santa Angelina Ranch with Densberger.

You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 521-5285 or robert.digitale@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @rdigit