Napa Valley’s Benessere Vineyards will be sold to the highest bidder at a May auction.
Provided by Ned Bonzi and Daniel Wilson/Concierge Auctions
After lingering on the market for well over a year, one of Napa Valley’s most idiosyncratic wineries will sell to the highest bidder in a May auction.
The listing for Benessere Vineyards — which focuses on Italian grape varieties and was the original home of Charles Shaw Winery, the brand behind Trader Joe’s notorious Two Buck Chuck — goes live with Concierge Auctions on Wednesday. Potential bidders can register through May 13, when the auction opens; the property will sell on May 28.
Benessere, a 43-acre St. Helena estate that includes a vineyard, winery, tasting room and two residences, originally hit the market in November 2024 for $35 million. John Benish, who owns Benessere with his mother and four siblings, said the family has put the property on the market and pulled it off a few times. It was most recently listed for $28 million, but received “no serious offers.”
Article continues below this ad
The family hopes an auction will cast a wider net to potential buyers. There is no mandatory starting bid, but Concierge chief revenue officer Nick Leonard said the company expects it to start between $8-$12 million. “The idea was to kickstart the sale,” Benish said, and market the property beyond California, as the auction house has “arms that stretch all over the world.”
The 43-acre St. Helena estate includes a vineyard, winery, tasting room and two residences.
Provided by Ned Bonzi and Daniel Wilson/Concierge Auctions
In recent years, most winery auctions have been distress-driven, the result of bankruptcy or foreclosure. But as the wine industry crisis continues, Leonard said he could see more sales going the auction route due to the sluggish real estate market for wineries and vineyards. In 2025, Villa San Juliette, a 160-acre wine estate in Paso Robles, went to auction after failing to sell. Listed for as much as $22 million, the price dropped to roughly $15 million before it went to auction, where it sold for $6.7 million, according to Zillow.
San Francisco Chronicle Logo
Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.
Add Preferred Source
If a property isn’t generating much interest, an auction “creates urgency,” Leonard said. At the same time, because the bidding process is transparent, it makes the buyer “feel very comfortable that they didn’t overpay.”
Article continues below this ad
Concierge is even launching a new wine division. “I think the state of the wine industry being in a little bit of flux — of uncertainty — has led to increased seller demand,” Leonard said. “If our inbound phone calls are any indication, we’ll definitely see more wineries selling at auction.”
Wine estates are challenging to price, Leonard said, because it’s “difficult to compare apples to apples.” The value of these types of properties varies due to many factors, including size, vineyard acreage, winery production permits, regional cachet and whether there’s a home on the estate.
A photo of the 2005 Benessere Napa Valley Sangiovese, the winery’s flagship.
Craig Lee/The Chronicle
Benish’s parents purchased the St. Helena property in 1994 for $1.5 million after Charles Shaw, then known for producing Beaujolais-style Gamay wines, filed for bankruptcy. (Later, wine magnate Fred Franzia, co-founder of Bronco Wine Co., bought the Charles Shaw brand and created the juggernaut that’s colloquially known as Two Buck Chuck.)
The Benish family didn’t want to compete with the oversaturated Cabernet Sauvignon market, and they soon realized that the high temperatures and soils at Benessere were the “perfect fit” for Italian grapes, John Benish said. The estate has roughly 30 acres of vines. Sangiovese is Benessere’s flagship grape, but it also grows a bevy of esoteric Italian varieties that are nearly impossible to find elsewhere in Napa Valley, including Sagrantino, Pinot Grigio, Aglianico and Falanghina.
Article continues below this ad
Ideally, the buyer will be interested in carrying on the Benessere brand and its “push for Italian varietals,” Benish said.
After Benish’s father passed away seven years ago, he said it was “very difficult” for his mother, now 90, to continue running the winery. None of the family members reside in California. “It’s very bittersweet. If my dad were still around, I’m sure we’d still be going strong,” he said. “We love the place, but I think in any big family, it’s hard to get a consensus about what you want to do for the future. A majority wanted to move on from the wine business.”