Big family-to-family sale of Napa Valley winery shines light on declining prices for vineyards
Brothers Perry Clark (left) and Edward Clark are part of the new ownership of the William Harrison Vineyards in St. Helena. Brian Clark
Key points
Longtime Napa vineyard sells for $6.8 million in market ‘abundant with opportunity’
‘This is the best opportunity we could ever have,’ one of the buyers said of current market for vineyards.
Napa price reductions hit a four-year high in June as inventory floods North Bay market.
William Perry is coming to Wine Country — not “the Refrigerator” of Chicago Bears fame, but new ownership for a longtime winery as valuations on Napa vineyards reset.
Winery founder William Harrison, with a 40-year history in Napa Valley’s Rutherford area, has just sold his William Harrison Vineyards & Winery to members of two other Bay Area winemaking families: the Clarks of Amizetta Estate Winery and the Longs of David Arthur Vineyards on Pritchard Hill. The winery will be renamed William Perry, after two of the new owners, William Edward Clark and Perry Clark, but the new owners will keep the William Harrison wine brand and continue to grow its five red Bordeaux varietals on the estate: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Malbec and Merlot.
“We’re going to maintain that William Harrison brand, but it’ll be more of a wholesale, which is a huge factor for us,” Clark said.
The price in the off-market July 24 sale was roughly $6.8 million, according to transfer tax data provided by the Napa County Assessor’s office. The sale includes Harrison’s nearly 9-acre property on the Silverado Trail.
The winery is set to reopen in fall after light renovations are completed. Brian Clark
The Clarks will be the operating partners, along with Laura Long with assistance from their respective spouses Jenny Wagner Clark, Christine Clark and Teddy Bystrowski. The team expects to reopen for tastings in the fall after renovations are complete.
The Rutherford AVA is one of the most sought-after Napa Valley regions and wine-producing properties are abundant on the market. According to data compiled by Compass, the March 1 count of active/coming-soon listings on the MLS was up approximately 64% year over year for Napa and Sonoma counties together, and agents on the ground in 2025 have also noticed the glut of properties for sale.
The William Harrison Vineyards & Winery in St. Helena was sold on July 24. Brian Clark
Agent Nick Muccitelli with Vanguard Properties told the Business Times that more wine-producing inventory has hit the market in 2025 in the North Bay after last year’s spike in inventory, creating a buyer’s market at the present time.
“Even in a state of flux, the winery and vineyard real estate market is abundant with opportunity,” Muccitelli said.
Perry Clark said that Wine Country valuations have now come in line with a viable winery business, making such a purchase possible. This squares with data, which shows that the number of price reductions in Napa County in June continued to increase and rose 48% year over year to its highest monthly count in more than four years.
“When times are good, the valuations can get so lofty that it becomes really hard to create a business model that makes sense, and right now a lot of people are fearful. I think they’re seeing a little bit of a blip in the market and not knowing where it’s going to go, but in our view, this is the best opportunity we could ever have,” Perry Clark told the Business Times, noting that he and his brother have been looking for 10 years to find a valley floor project. “This is the time that small vendors and families should be trying to buy these assets because this is when you can.”
“Something that they were looking for in the sale is to keep it into like a familyowned outfit as opposed to like selling to like maybe a conglomerate or a corporation,” he said. “There were a lot of other suitors who’d been knocking on his door, but he was very adamant in the situation that he wanted to see it go to some local families.”
Harrison is looking to travel more and enjoy the fruits of his labor. His maternal ancestors had been making fine wine in Italy since the early 16th century. His grandfather, Antonio Perelli-Minetti immigrated to California in 1902, and was one of the first winemakers in the state to hold a degree in viticulture and enology, according to the brokers.
The vineyard itself is nestled against the eastern foothills of the Vaca Mountain range, in the northeast corner of the Rutherford AVA. According to the UC Davis Soil Resource Lab, its primary composition is the Cortina series of very gravelly, sandy loam consistent with the proximity to the Napa River. The yield is small, producing roughly 1600 cases of boutique wines annually, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and a Meritage-style blend called Rutherford Reserve.
“To be part of this historical handoff from one family to another is what selling real estate is all about,” said Compass Agent Mary Carpenter, who was also involved in the transaction.