Some commercial real estate brokers trade warehouses, retail spaces and vacant offices. By comparison, the properties Jenny Heinzen sells can seem full bodied and fine.

Heinzen is one of only a handful of dedicated vineyard brokers in California. She works on land deals with some of the biggest names in the wine business around the nation's largest vino-producing state. The acclaim for California's wine has translated to business for real estate brokers such as Heinzen, who has sold thousands of acres of vineyards since she started her career in 2005.

The U.S. wine industry is big business, producing in all 50 states. In 2022, the industry's total economic impact was expected to total more than $276 billion, according to a report from WineAmerica, the National Association of American Wineries.

Heinzen, a native of Santa Cruz, California, is based in Paso Robles, a city in California wine country roughly 200 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Paso Robles isn't as well known as Napa Valley, but the region is sought after for its Cabernet Sauvignon, attracting well-known wine producers including Daou and J. Lohr. Both are and have been Heinzen's clients.

Her work has earned Heinzen praise from some of the biggest names in the business. Jerry Lohr, founder of J. Lohr, said Heinzen is the go-to real estate broker for vineyard transactions. Heinzen, who interned at J. Lohr about two decades ago, understands winemaking concepts and is a professional at what she does, Lohr said.

"She's totally dedicated and has a sixth sense of what makes a good vineyard," Lohr said.

The industry faces challenges that affect Heinzen's business. California's freshwater shortage has been exacerbated by climate change, meaning the most common question buyers ask is about the availability of water on the property and how the vineyard wells are performing. Changing consumer preferences can reduce demand, while labor shortages can squeeze growers' profits and affect the price of grapes and land, she said.

Even so, the wine business is going well for Heinzen. She recently put together a $9.4 million deal that set a record for price per acre paid in Paso Robles. The parties involved are confidential, as many California winemakers like to keep quiet about their land acquisitions, Heinzen said.

Building trust with clients comes with perks. Buyers and sellers often give wine to each other as gifts. They also give wine to brokers involved in deals. As a result, Heinzen's private collection includes hundreds of bottles. More than that, she gets to learn about wine from some of the top minds in the business.

Of course, selling vineyards set against scenic, rolling hills is a perk of her business, too, Heinzen said.

Certainly, Heinzen's site tours are often more interesting than a visit to a warehouse or multifamily property.

It's not unusual for her clients to take ATV tours because of the large size of most vineyards. Occasionally, buyers like to stop during the tours, touch the vines and examine the grapes as they evaluate their potential investment.

Deals can take years to put together, Heinzen said, but these properties can be lucrative investments for buyers. Heinzen is currently selling a 285-acre, grape-and-lemon ranch that generates an estimated net revenue of nearly $800,000 annually, according to marketing materials.

But not every day is spent doing site visits, partly because of the logistical challenge of getting to winemaking properties that are sometimes located hours from Paso Robles such as Napa, about four hours away.

Heinzen said a typical day is spent in Paso Robles networking and meeting with clients. On a recent day, Heinzen had a meeting with Lohr at her Paso Robles office. Later, she attended a wine industry event in downtown Paso Robles before heading off to dinner with clients at Six Test Kitchen, a Michelin-star restaurant nearby.

It's a full-time job to buy and sell these vineyards, and Heinzen is among a few real estate brokers who are fully focused on doing just that.

Some real estate brokers may sell one or two vineyards a year and often dabble in other types of property sales. Heinzen said she sells about a dozen winemaking properties per year with an average price of about $5 million. Some properties are vineyards, either planted or plantable, and others are production facilities with tasting rooms, homes, event facilities, vacation rentals and more, she said.

Holly Smith, who works with Heinzen on real estate deals, said she is known for her hard work and expertise.

Heinzen's dedication and discretion has translated into strong relationships with vineyard professionals, which in turn leads to more business in the tight-knit world of wine-making that her numbers bear out, Smith said. "It’s a passion, and she lives for it," she said.

Heinzen grew up in a family that flipped houses. She got her first taste of the real estate business when she was around 8 years old and painted homes her family was fixing up. Heinzen also enjoyed sifting through Realtor magazines with home listings as a kid alongside her dad.

She later went on to earn a master’s degree in agriculture from California Polytechnic State University before becoming a licensed California real estate broker in 2004.

Years after graduating, she finds that the vineyard-selling business beats working in the office and making routine commercial property sales.

"It's so beautiful," Heinzen said. "The scenery never gets old."