Prominent lawyer David Boies selling Lake County ranch for possible record price: $23 million
Prominent litigator David Boies has listed his Northern California ranch and vineyard for $23 million — an asking price that would make the property the most expensive sale ever recorded in Lake County, according to Golden Gate Sotheby’s International Realty.
The property, known as Diamond B Ranch, encompasses nearly 1,183 acres in Lower Lake, California, 100 miles north of Sacramento. The estate comprises five separate homes and includes multiple vineyards spanning over 40 acres. The ranch is home to a winery that produces over 2,000 bottles of organic and biodynamic wine a year, specializing in Cabernet Sauvignon.
The main residence on the ranch is a five-bedroom, five-bathroom, three-story log home. There is a newly built hospitality center, four other ranch homes, a top-notch equestrian center with indoor and outdoor riding arenas, and several barns.
Located on Highway 29, “it offers the ability to create an entire off-the-grid, organic ecosystem employing the closed system biodynamic philosophy, and a rare opportunity to live safely and independently away from it all,” according to the official listing. “You have the opportunity to operate the ranch, vineyard and equestrian facilities commercially.”
Diamond B Ranch is also home to a whole range of wildlife, including Highland cattle, wild turkey, boar and owls. There are four lakes on the property and a swimming pool.
Boies has represented a diverse bunch of high profile clients. He represents the accusers of financier Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who killed himself in jail, Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore in Bush v. Gore, tobacco companies, movie producer Harvey Weinstein and a plaintiff in a case to overturn Proposition 8, the ban on same-sex marriage in California.
Boies bought the property in 1990 and built the main house. Boies told the Wall Street Journal he was drawn to the property by the romance of farming, among other reasons. He spent his early years in a rural farming community in Illinois, he told the newspaper.
“He’s not getting back as often as he used to over the last 30 years of owning it and spending most of his time on the East Coast now,” said Vanessa Bergmark of Red Oak Realty, listing agent for the property together with Michael Dreyfus of Golden Gate Sotheby’s International Realty.
Asked who might be a typical potential buyer, she said that with the new work-from-home paradigm, the buyer can be from anywhere in the nation.
“The ranch has unlimited possibilities: commercial, already successfully branded wine label, expanded acres to grow additional varieties and expand operations,” she said in an email to the Sacramento Bee. “The equestrian facilities could be private boarding or hold large scale commercial events. Being just off highway 29, with commercial access and a massive amount of private land as well, it offers the unique opportunity to run a business while maintaining a private retreat.”
The organic vineyard is comprised of 18 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Sirah, with 45 additional acres prepared and permitted.
Biodynamic farming is a system that is minimally dependent on imported materials and utilizes the biodiversity of the farm so that the waste of one part of the farm becomes the energy for another, and that ultimately makes the farm sustainable.
Editor’s note: This story was updated Dec. 21, 2020, to correct the number of acres of Diamond B ranch to 1,183.
This story was originally published December 18, 2020 at 7:27 AM.
