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    A Craft Whiskey Maker’s Idyllic Coastal California Vineyard Estate Can Be Yours for $6.9 Million

    A Central California vineyard estate long owned by San Luis Obispo-based real estate investor and developer Rodney (Rod) Cegelski has just popped up for sale in the charming and lively seaside community of Avila Beach. After almost two decades, the co-founder of Rod & Hammer’s craft whiskey distillery and his wife Robin are preparing to downsize and are now offering the nearly six-acre spread known as Casa Contenta for a dash under $6.9 million, around $500,000 less than the original $7.4 million asking price in March.

    Nestled in the rolling foothills of the Santa Lucia Mountains, about halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, the gated property is distinguished by a two-acre pinot noir vineyard that produces a sparkling rosé. Records show the couple paid $2.1 million in early 2007 for the licensed rental retreat, which has a Spanish-inspired main home, plus a detached guesthouse and a bonus suite atop the five-car garage—for a combined total of six bedrooms and seven baths in roughly 6,200 square feet.

    The soaring mezzanine-topped living room flows to a massive kitchen outfitted with a seated wet bar.

    David Lalush

    As for the three-bedroom, four-bath primary dwelling, the white stucco and terracotta-roof structure was created in the late 1980s by a cadre of designers and architects from California, Australia, and Mexico, according to marketing materials. Highlights include a fireside living room resting beneath a soaring whitewashed wood-beam ceiling embellished with black brackets.

    A massive kitchen sports an eat-in island, Wolf and Sub-Zero appliances, a wet bar, a butler’s pantry, and a breakfast nook, while the primary suite comes with a fireplace, dual walk-in closets, and a soaking tub-equipped bath. Two more bedrooms and a bath can be found in the guesthouse, which has its own living room and kitchen, and an open-concept bonus suite above the garage features a bedroom, bath, and living area.

    Spiral stairs lead to an open-air observation tower for coastal breezes and picturesque mountain vistas.

    David Lalush

    Especially standing out on the scenic hillside grounds—designed by noted landscaper Jeffrey Gordon Smith and sited amid the so-called “Hole in the Sky” microclimate known for its temperate weather—is an open-air observation tower outfitted with a cozy built-in sofa. There’s also a pool with a slide and an accompanying spa, along with several fire pits, a barbecue station, and a meandering walking trail.

    Per listing agent Lindsey Harn of Christie’s International Real Estate Sereno, the entire property can bring in up to $2,400 a night in rent, with the potential to make more than $450,000 annually. Hobbyist vintners will note the purchase includes a fully operational winemaking venture and label, with the opportunity to contract with a winemaker to produce your own vintages.

    Click here for more photos of the coastal California estate.

    David Lalush

    Authors

    Wendy Bowman

    Wendy Bowman is a real estate writer at Robb Report. Before that, she was a freelancer for Modern Luxury and several other media outlets, where she primarily covered luxury properties for…

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    Joan Fontaine’s Former Carmel Home Hits the Market for $6 Million

    Throughout her lengthy five-decade career, Golden-Age Hollywood star Joan Fontaine racked up plenty of accomplishments. The younger sister of fellow thespian Olivia de Havilland appeared in more than 45 movies, garnering three Oscar nods for “Best Actress” in the process and winning a golden statue in 1941 for her role as the timid wife in Alfred Hitchcock’s psychological thriller Suspicion.

    Fontaine passed away in late 2013 at age 96. The following year, her longtime Central California home perched atop the Carmel Highlands and its contents—including that Oscar—were put up for auction, with the animal lover designating that the proceeds from the sale go to the Monterey chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Now the property has once again popped up for sale, asking a speck under $6 million. The listing is held by Tim Allen of the Tim Allen Properties Team at Coldwell Banker Realty.

    Multiple decks overlook breathtaking views of the rugged and dramatic Carmel coastline.

    Sherman Chu/courtesy Tim Allen Properties

    RELATED: A Hollywood Composer’s Coastal California Compound Hits the Market for $16.8 Million

    Built in the mid-1960s and known as Villa Fontana, the shingle-roof structure is tucked away on a cypress-laced acre of land sited near beaches and the charming downtown village of Carmel-by-the-Sea. Inside, a total of four bedrooms and five baths can be found in a little more than 4,700 square feet of meandering living space on two levels displaying a mix of red brick and rustic wood floors, plaster walls, and custom wood molding throughout. Walls of glass and multiple decks also overlook picturesque views of the Pacific Ocean and Point Lobos from almost every vantage point.

    Tall double doors open into an entry foyer, which flows to a spacious living room warmed by a wood-burning fireplace. A hallway leads to the formal dining room, as well as a galley-style kitchen outfitted with a vintage double oven, a stainless refrigerator, and an accompanying breakfast nook. A walk-in pantry can be found across the hall, while a staircase descends to a lower level containing laundry facilities, a fireside family/game room, and a bedroom that’s currently being used as an office.

    A cozy wood-clad library holds memorabilia from the Golden-Age star’s tenure at the premises.

    Sherman Chu/courtesy Tim Allen Properties

    RELATED: Clint Eastwood’s Onetime Seaside Retreat in California Is Up for Grabs at $21 Million

    Other highlights include a sky-lit breezeway that connects to an annex holding a cozy wood-paneled library with a fireplace and built-in bookshelves, plus a primary suite flaunting a fourth fireplace, a dual-vanity bath with a sunken tub/shower combo, and access to a private patio. A separate wing on the opposite end of the house has a bedroom and a bath, and a guest suite with its own entrance can be found on the lower level. There’s also a gated motor court and a detached two-car garage out front.

    Click here for more photos of the Carmel residence.

    Sherman Chu, courtesy Tim Allen Properties; Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images

    Authors

    Wendy Bowman

    Wendy Bowman is a real estate writer at Robb Report. Before that, she was a freelancer for Modern Luxury and several other media outlets, where she primarily covered luxury properties for…

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    A Hollywood Composer’s Coastal California Compound Hits the Market for $16.8 Million

    Back in the late 1980s, Grammy-winning film composer Alan Silvestri and his wife Sandra fell in love with a particularly dreamy estate tucked away in Central California’s affluent Carmel Highlands enclave and knew they had to make the picturesque spread their own.

    The couple wound up purchasing the century-old property for $1.9 million and spent the next decade restoring and renovating every inch of the place, all while working and living on the site, raising three children, and even launching Silvestri Vineyards nearby. Now, almost 16 years later, they are putting the fully transformed compound on the market for $16.8 million. Shelly Mitchell Lynch of Carmel Realty Company holds the listing.

    Silvestri used a Steinway piano in the living room to compose soundtracks for several memorable films.

    Carmel Realty Company

    RELATED: Clint Eastwood’s Onetime Seaside Retreat in California Is Up for Grabs at $21 Million

    “We were struck by how beautiful it was, and the air and the ocean and wildness and everything,” Sandra related in a recent issue of Carmel Realty’s in-house magazine. Added Alan, who was hoping to relocate from Los Angeles while continuing his successful career scoring soundtracks for movies like Romancing the Stone, Back to the Future, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit: “We took a leap. There was no doubt about that. We didn’t know how my business was going to react to it.

    “The first confirmation we had was [while I was composing] my first film in the house, The Abyss,” he said. “When we saw [director] James Cameron driving down the driveway, we knew, ‘Okay, he was willing to come here and maybe this will work out.’ ”

    The main stone and wood-trimmed home features an expansive rear deck that steps down to a pool.

    Carmel Realty Company

    Perched atop a gated knoll resting between two secluded roads on the eastern side of Highway 1, near beaches and the charming downtown village of Carmel-by-the-Sea, the 14-acre compound features a main home inspired by the historic Ahwahnee hotel in Yosemite and a trio of guesthouses—for a total of nine bedrooms and 12 baths filtered across roughly 12,000 square feet overlooking sweeping views of Point Lobos and the Pacific Ocean beyond.

    Within the 5,697-square-foot primary dwelling are five bedrooms and six baths, as well as dual offices, a fireside family room that flows to a dining area and a breakfast nook-equipped kitchen, and a spacious living room that currently houses a Steinway piano on which Silvestri has written music for Back to the Future, Forrest Gump, The Polar Express and The Avengers, among others. The basement is used for storing wine, while the woodsy grounds host a pool and spa, a tennis/pickleball court, and three separate garages with room for up to seven vehicles.

    A small log cabin on the property once served as a schoolhouse for local children.

    Carmel Realty Company

    RELATED: A Hollywood Screenwriter Asks $4.2 Million for His Coastal California Retreat

    Guest accommodations include The Cottage, a 774-square-foot log cabin that once served as a schoolhouse for local children, and the castle-like Turret House, a 641-square-foot studio space that comes with a stainless spiral staircase leading down to a subterranean garage. Clocking in at a little more than 5,000 square feet on three levels, The Studio House features a media lounge up top and a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment with its own kitchen and laundry on the main level, plus multiple offices and a recording studio down below.

    Click here for more photos of the Carmel Highlands estate.

    Carmel Realty Company

    Authors

    Wendy Bowman

    Wendy Bowman is a real estate writer at Robb Report. Before that, she was a freelancer for Modern Luxury and several other media outlets, where she primarily covered luxury properties for…

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    Clint Eastwood’s Onetime Seaside Retreat in California Is Up for Grabs at $21 Million

    Back in the early 1950s, after he was drafted into the U.S. Army and stationed at Central California‘s Fort Ord overlooking the picturesque Monterey Bay, Clint Eastwood would often find himself visiting the small beach city of Carmel-by-the-Sea, even partaking in his first legal beer at the historic Mission Ranch. The San Francisco native inevitably wound up falling in love with the charming coastal area, telling a local magazine in a Q&A interview shortly before his 94th birthday in May that he “always felt it was a place I’d like to come back to, a place to call home.”

    And call the place home he did, making a big mark along the way. The now legendary and still-working actor, producer, director, and composer of more than 100 films and TV shows—among them, the award-winning movies Gran Torino, Unforgiven, and Million Dollar Baby—not only starred in and made his directorial debut with 1971’s Play Misty for Me, but he also served a two-year stint as mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea in the late ’80s and named his Malpaso production company after a local creek.

    He still lives in the area at Tehàma, an exclusive 2,000-acre private residential enclave in the hills of Carmel that he himself founded. However, Eastwood at one time resided in an eye-catching spread in the heart of the quaint oceanfront village down below, just one street up from Carmel Beach. It’s this seaside retreat that has popped up for sale at $21 million for the first time in almost three decades, complete with enchanting vistas of the scenic coastline that are sure to make your day!

    The charming Spanish Revival-style home is fronted by an enclosed courtyard warmed by a fire pit.

    Sherman Chu/courtesy of Tim Allen Properties Team

    “Many long-standing residents in the region have an affinity for the history of this property,” says listing agent Tim Allen of the Tim Allen Properties Team at Coldwell Banker Realty. “The warm and inviting spaces, both inside and outside, take you back in time and are reflective of Carmel’s old-world style and beauty. This private oasis is truly a special property not only because of its history but also for its exquisiteness and privacy.”

    Per The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the sale, retired investor Frederick O’Such and his late wife Joanne paid an Eastwood-linked trust around $2.25 million in the late ’90s for the gated property, which rests on just over a quarter-acre of land and boasts four bedrooms and five baths in 4,400-plus square feet of three-level living space accented throughout with mahogany details, custom built-ins, cherry wood floors, vaulted wood-beamed ceilings, and plaster walls. There’s also a detached two-car garage.

    A decorative fireplace, built-in cabinetry, and picture window adorn the formal dining room.

    Sherman Chu/courtesy of Tim Allen Properties Team

    Built exactly a century ago in 1924, but given an extensive two-year, $2.5 million rebuild and remodel during O’Such’s tenure, the Carmel stone and terracotta-roof structure is known as Las Ondas and features an enclosed entry courtyard donning a fire pit, several ocean-view decks, and a gated walkway that leads down to the beach.

    Other highlights include formal living and dining rooms, each with their own fireplace, as well as a media room, a climate-controlled wine room, and two laundry rooms. The Craftsman-style kitchen is outfitted with wood and tile countertops, a painted tin ceiling, Thermador and Sub-Zero appliances, built-in seating, and a walk-in pantry, while a duo of luxe primary suites includes one with a fireside seating area that opens to a private balcony and a bath sporting dual vanities, a steam shower, and a vintage clawfoot soaking tub.

    According to WSJ, O’Such is selling because he is ready to move on after the death of his most recent spouse Nancy Fuhrman, who passed away a few months ago. “This has been a lovely house for me with both of [my wives],” said O’Such, who is planning to relocate to a cottage at a nearby retirement community upon the sale of the property. “It is time for the next owner to enjoy this historic home and share it with their friends and family for years to come.”

    Click here for more photos of Clint Eastwood’s house.

    Sherman Chu/courtesy of Tim Allen Properties Team More