Booze Mogul Lists 130 Acres on Lake Tahoe for $188 Million

Here’s a chance to one-up Mark Zuckerberg and the recent buyer of a record-breaking home on Lake Tahoe. The cost: $188 million.

Larry Ruvo, head of Southern Glazer Wine and Spirits of Nevada, and his wife, Camille, have listed part or all of the 130-acre Shakespeare Ranch at 1949 Glenbrook Inn Road, in Glenbrook, Nevada, SFGate reported.

The price of premium property along the sparkling blue lake straddling the Golden and Silver states has been heading north for years, driven by tech billionaires from the Bay Area.

In 2018 and 2019, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg bought a pair of lakefront properties known as the Carousel and Brushwood estates for a combined $59 million — with plans to build a 20,000-square-foot megamansion and more on 10 acres and 600 feet of waterfront.

This month, an unidentified buyer from the Bay Area spent a record $62 million for a lakefront mansion built by casino mogul Steve Wynn in Incline Village, Nevada. In August, a home on Lake Tahoe sold to another undisclosed buyer for $47.5 million.

But these properties pale in comparison to historic Shakespeare Ranch and its asking price.

Last month, the Ruvos put a handful of parcels on the market for a combined $84 million. Then the couple listed the whole shebang — billed as “130 acres of pure American poetry in tax-friendly Nevada.”

The property along Tahoe’s eastern shore contains 17 residences and cabins, 14 buoys, a 465-foot deep-water pier, two boat lifts, a 151-year-old barn and grounds for the annual Glenbrook Rodeo, a tradition dating back to the 1940s.

Shakespeare Ranch, known for the cliff-face that supposedly resembles the English bard, as well as a secretive haunt for politicians, rock stars, comedians and chefs, has also been a bastion of privacy.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” listing agent Mike Dunn of Chase International told SFGate. “And I will say, it’s a must-see.”

The revised listing has been fashioned so that a buyer can purchase parts of the property — including the 4,300-square-foot home called Water’s Edge, with a lakeside cabana and the pier, for $35 million. Or someone could buy the entire 130-acre spread for $188 million.

It’s not clear when the Ruvos bought the estate, and for how much.

Larry Ruvo made his fortune from Southern Glazer Wine and Spirits of Nevada, the state’s largest wholesale importer and distributor of wine, beer and liquor. He also founded the Keep Memory Alive Foundation and Lou Ruvo Brain Institute, both dedicated to Alzheimer’s research.

— Dana Bartholomew