One of Sonoma County’s most photogenic farm stops is now being offered to the person with nearly $5 million and a serious tolerance for bees. Monte-Bellaria in Sebastopol, a 14-acre estate with 38,000 lavender plants, an olive orchard and a Tuscan-inspired home, has hit the market.
The asking price is $4,995,000, with Home Girls of Sonoma County listing the property on its website. Redfin shows the estate entered the market in late July, making it a very fresh arrival in Sonoma County’s luxury-property sweep.
As reported by Sonoma Magazine, Monte-Bellaria has long been a stop along Sonoma County Farm Trails and is regarded as one of the largest lavender farms in Northern California. The estate has been stewarded since 2002 by the late Dr. Bill MacElroy, who cultivated and harvested the lavender with farm manager and beekeeper Eric Silas. The farm has also turned the harvest into essential oils, soaps, balms, hydrosols and lavender honey.
The name Monte-Bellaria means ‘mountain of beautiful air’ in Italian, and the farm’s own website describes an operation built around estate-grown lavender, bees and olive oil. The property’s Grosso lavender, olive grove and apiary feed both the agricultural side and the farm-store side of the business. In other words, this is less a house with some landscaping than a small, established agritourism operation with a very fragrant branding department.
A Luxury Home In The Middle Of Lavender Country
The 4,965-square-foot residence was built in 2014 and includes four bedrooms and three-and-a-half bathrooms, according to the property details. The sales package also lists an elevator, an additional prep kitchen, an outdoor brick oven and a secondary unit. Sonoma Magazine notes that the home offers views across the lavender rows and neighboring vineyards, because apparently, regular backyard views were not dramatic enough.
The land is where the asking price really starts doing heavy lifting. Marketing materials describe roughly 9.5 cultivated lavender acres, mature olive groves, active apiaries, agricultural infrastructure and an on-site farm store, putting the working landscape at the center of the sale rather than treating it as a decorative extra, according to Redfin’s listing.
What Happens To The Farm Store
The public-facing visitor operation appears to be in transition. Sonoma County Tourism still presents Monte-Bellaria as a place for field walks, lavender products and picnic spaces, while a Farm Trails profile records a May 2-3 closeout sale for pickup only and says tours and visits were not allowed for that event.
The public materials do not spell out whether the farm store, tours or seasonal visits will continue after a sale. For now, the package remains unusually specific: a West Sonoma County residence, a lavender business, olive oil and bee products, all bundled into one nearly $5 million deal.
