Advisor Navigates ‘Challenging’ Sale of Popular Missouri Winery
An Open Mind Was Key in Selling 137-acre Property
STE. GENEVIEVE, Mo., Sept. 15, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- After roughly two years on the market, a celebrated and award-winning Missouri winery has finally been sold to a rather unexpected buyer — thanks to help from a Kansas City, Mo.-based real estate company.
Located 67 miles south of St. Louis, Chaumette Vineyard and Winery was a community staple for 25 years. According to published reports, 82-year-old owner Hank Johnson had already considered retiring and stopped making wine last year following the recent loss of most of his grapes to bad weather. With the writing on the wall so to speak, Johnson first put his property up for sale in 2023.
Initially, the goal was to sell to someone who wanted to keep the winery running, potentially even retaining the Chaumette brand. Afterall, the business was reportedly producing several thousand cases of wine each year and had won national awards and acclaim for its wine, on-site restaurant and as a wedding venue.
However, the market for hospitality properties in the area following the COVID pandemic proved challenging. Eventually, the priority shifted to finding a reliable buyer regardless of the buyer’s goals for the property. Enter real estate advisor Brian Lensing with United Country Real Estate | Heritage Brokers & Auctioneers out of Kansas City. He secured the Chaumette listing when Johnson wasn’t able to sell through a competing brokerage.
“The seller was referred to me by an attorney who knew (Johnson was) looking for a new real estate brokerage and felt United Country and my skillset were a good fit,” Lensing said. “Keeping an open mind, we built a marketing program that included the opportunity for Chaumette to be repurposed once acquired. Ultimately, that buyer’s intended use could not have been more different from an operating winery and vineyard.”
Lensing recently finalized that transaction bringing in Life Teen International, a Catholic youth ministry group with multiple summer camps around the country. The group’s purchase includes 137 acres of rolling hills, hiking trails and a plethora of modern amenities — private villas, a fitness center, resort-style pool, restored chapel, event barn and more.
A commercial real estate specialist, Lensing last year earned the prestigious Certified Commercial Investment Member (or “CCIM”) Designation. His vast knowledge and experience, along with unique and diverse property marketing from the 100-year-old United Country Real Estate were crucial in closing the deal.
“It’s often about the ability to navigate the promotion and sale of challenging properties,” Lensing said. “The listing opportunity proved to be a good fit, once the owners understood our depth of experience and saw the valuable resources at my disposal. Selling the property was much more difficult but we were up for the challenge. On a local basis, many of the other wineries in the area never reopened after COVID. That made the entire area less of a destination and isolated Chaumette even more.”
He said most of the early prospective buyers had “concerns about capital needs, labor and the changing market for wineries in the area,” and it became clear the strategy needed to change with a broader scope for redevelopment targets. So, the once popular winery is now Life Teen’s Camp Cana in the historic town of Ste. Genevieve … more or less, that is. Lensing confirmed Johnson has retained 120± acres of his original 250-acre property.
“(The Johnson’s) will continue to be neighbors to the new Life Teen camp, and they look forward to seeing it evolve with great success,” he said.
About United Country Real Estate
United Country Real Estate (at UnitedCountry.com) is the leading, fully-integrated network of conventional and auction real estate professionals specializing in lifestyle and rural real estate. The company has been an innovator in real estate marketing since 1925, with a unique, comprehensive advertising program. This exclusive program includes the highest-ranked and largest portfolios of specialty lifestyle property marketing websites, unequaled national print advertising, the largest internal real estate advertising agency, an extensive database of more than 1 million opt-in buyers, and additional proprietary programs to advertise properties more broadly.
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Ryan Kane United Country Real Estate 816-420-6200 pr@unitedcountry.com
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