Legacy Estate In the Heart of Gold Rush Country Is Listed for the Very First Time

In today’s modern world, where brand-new megamansions appear to replace historic homes on a daily basis, it’s rare that a true legacy estate makes its debut on the market, particularly in California, home of some of the country’s most glittering contemporary abodes.

Yet that is exactly what has emerged in the Golden State’s Sierra Foothills, where a spectacular 10-acre ranch has been listed for the first time since it was built, having been lovingly tended to by the same family for nearly four decades.

The farmhouse estate, which is known as Bella Tenuta, made its first appearance on the market on June 6, when it was listed by Noelle Borden of Borden Signature Properties with an asking price of $3.9 million.

Described in its listing as one of the “most coveted family estates” in Penryn, a quaint, sleepy suburb of Sacramento, there is far more to the “remarkable property” than first meets the eye, not least the many extraordinary stories it has been witness to.

“This remarkable home has held many rare and beautiful chapters and is ready for the next owner to write their own,” the listing notes.

Clearly designed for multigenerational living, the compound features multiple structures across its 10 acres.

Beyond the more than 4,000-square-foot main house, the property also includes an updated guesthouse, log cabin, and bunkhouse, a collection of structures that reads less like a single home and more like a multigenerational ranch.

The main residence holds six bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms, including a main-floor primary suite with a sitting area and walk-in closet, plus a separate in-law suite for extended family.

Cathedral ceilings, a formal entry, and a pair of stone fireplaces in the living and family rooms lend the interior an old-world warmth, while a granite-topped island and breakfast nook anchor the kitchen’s more casual side. Wraparound porches and a covered deck open onto panoramic views of the surrounding pastures and mature trees.

The home was built in 1990 and has steadily been updated in the years since. The kitchen is one of the most recently upgraded spaces in the dwelling, having been renovated within the last decade, the bathrooms more recently still.

Throughout that evolution, the estate has remained in the care of the same family—with property records revealing that the land has passed between generations through deed transfers dating back to 2004.

But the real draw is everything happening outside.

The grounds are set up as a fully operational equestrian compound: a barn wired for electricity and plumbed for water, up to six stalls, a tack room, a round pen, and irrigated, cross-fenced pastures ready for grazing.

The guesthouse sits above an oversized six-car garage with extra depth, a drive-through bay, RV parking, and a workshop with its own full bathroom and shiplap walls, the kind of space that would stop any serious car enthusiast in their tracks.

Water rights are another asset that’s hard to overstate in a region where they grow more precious by the year: The estate draws from city water, a private well, and roughly 5 inches of irrigation water.

Add a sparkling in-ground pool, raised garden beds, a flower garden, and fruit trees, and the property starts to feel less like a home and more like its own little world.

The location doesn’t hurt either. Penryn sits along the Interstate 80 corridor between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe, surrounded by the vineyards and rolling hills of California’s Sierra Foothills.

While Bella Tenuta—which means “beautiful estate” in Italian—was only built in 1990, the surrounding area is rich in history that dates back to the Gold Rush era in the mid-1800s.

According to Explore the Sierra Foothills, Penryn was founded during this time, when a Welsh immigrant named Griffith Griffith began mining, not for gold, but for granite, in the area.

“He leased land in 1864 from the Central Pacific Railroad and was quickly producing stone and shipping it out on the railway,” the website states. “He named it after the quarry his father had worked in Wales, the Penrhyn Slate Quarry, dropping the ‘h’ to make it easier for non-Welsh speakers.”

Such was the success of the operation that the town of Penryn was soon established, named for the mining operation that had helped to lure in so many new settlers.

By 1870, “it had become a thriving community, with a hotel, a schoolhouse, a blacksmith, and a half dozen shops and saloons.”

Though the quarry was closed in the mid-1890s, Penryn continued to enjoy booming business courtesy of its rich soil and sunny weather, which helped it to become one of the premier fruit-growing regions in the country, a legacy that it retains to this day.