Entenmann family’s Martha Clara wine estate sold for $15m

The Entenmann family, who are behind one of the biggest baked goods brands in the US, has sold its Long Island ‘Big E’ farm and wine estate, including its Martha Clara vineyards, to a Mexican wine company for US$15 million.

Photo credit: The Corcoran Group

The estate was bought by the Rivero-Gonzalez family, wine producers from Mexico, who plan to expand their operations to the US, according to The Corcoran Group, who handled the sale.

The Entenmann family, which sold its baked-goods company in 1978, has owned the Long Island estate for a generation, but first listed it for sale in 2014 for $25 million. The price was later cut to $17.5 million, eventually selling for $15m.

Grandson of the company’s founder, Robert Entenmann, who died in 2016 at the age of 88, had purchased the former potato farm with plans to turn it into a thoroughbred horse ranch. However in 1995 chose instead to plant 18 acres of vineyards, which steadily increased over the next four years. He named the vineyard after his mother, Entenmann family matriarch Martha Clara, resulting in the wine brand Martha Clara Vineyards.

The sale includes Martha Clara Vineyards, which includes a tasting room, event space and 113 acres of vines, as well as horse pastures, nine barns and a “manor house” which has five bedrooms and 10,236 square feet (951 square meters) of living space.

The purchase price was the second-highest in North Fork history, behind a waterfront property that sold for $19.5m in 2008, according to Corcoran Group.

Its new owners, the Rivero-Gonzalez family – which also has interests in mining – owns the Rivero-González wine business in Parras de la Fuente, which is known for producing a white wine made with 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, with the purchase in line with its plans to expand its interests in the US.

Photo credit: The Corcoran Group
Photo credit: The Corcoran Group