Entertainment Properties Trust sells Sonoma winery

Carneros Vintners has bought the Sonoma custom crush facility it has leased since 2009, the latest winery property to be sold off by Entertainment Properties Trust.

Carneros Vintners paid $12.5 million for the facility, according to public documents. The company, which also owns a custom crush facility in Lodi, planned all along to purchase the property, said Nate Rippey, general manager for Carneros Vintners.

"Even though we're a Napa family, Lodi Vintners in Lodi was our entry point into the wine business," Rippey said. "Once that was working out well for us, we started looking in our own area."

Entertainment Properties, based in Kansas City, Mo., owned most of the wineries and vineyards associated with now-defunct Ascentia Wine Estates, and has been trying to unload those properties since the economic downturn. It still owns the vineyards and real estate at Geyser Peak Winery.