We have all seen these commercials around this time of year. A woman (or at least almost always a woman) is led to the door by her beaming spouse, her eyes covered.

The door opens and there, in the driveway, is a brand new Lexus (or Mercedes, Pontiac, KIA or whatever) with a big red bow tied around it. The woman then either shrieks, jumps for joy, or, in a favorite example this season, passes out cold. There is always a short tagline at the end and the viewer is left wondering three things: how did he (or she) sneak a two-ton car into the driveway without anyone noticing; how did the bank loan the money with only one signature; and where on earth do you find ribbon and bows that big?

Well, I don’t have an answer to any of those questions, but I do know how you can definitely trump a new car for Christmas. Buy a vineyard. Not just any vineyard property, but one that comes with 360 degree views that stretch, literally, as far as the eye can see. One that comes complete with a 6,000 square foot, stone and glass, one bedroom two bath main house with windows all around and a pool perched on one side of the knoll. Adjacent to it is a two bedroom guest house so you don’t go about tripping over awakening guests (who might have spent a bit too long in the wine library sipping older vintages of Opus One and Screaming Eagle) while you have your breakfast in the main house, or on one of the landscaped patios, perhaps beneath a persimmon tree.

Set in the world famous Stags Leap Appellation with views across the valley of the rock formation that is synonymous with the area, the property is about 114 acres in all. And if you decided that the original house, built circa 1971 by Si and June Foote, (as in: The Land Trust of Napa County) is a bit dated? There is a lower knoll where you could build a modern home, keeping the house higher up as sort of the ultimate pool house, wine cellar and entertainment center. You could use the garage to house a couple of those new cars with the bows on them.

On the market for $19.5 million, it is certainly one of pricier one bedroom homes up for sale, even in the Napa Valley where, as Realtor Steve Gregory of Morgan Lane who represents the Pillar Rock, notes, property in this particular stratosphere is pretty much immune from the uncertainties that have ravished a large swath of the real estate business. Though currently in escrow to an out-of-town real estate investment trust (an REIT), if you should happen to show up at his office with a check then there is a good chance it could be yours.

Unlike the Lexus or the Mercedes, the property actually generates a certain amount of income. The grapes from the property’s 22 acres of vineyards are already under contract to some of the regions most noted ultra-premium wineries. Despite the price that Stags Leap fruit commands I am not too sure that the revenue from the grape harvest would quite cover a mortgage of close to $20 bucks, but it could underwrite the cost of a few of the lesser expenses and even at gas prices of $3.50 a gallon and up for premium, would probably keep those gas tanks filled in the cars.

Or you could avoid the middleman and simply open your own winery on five of the estate’s acres. There is already a permit approved for a 16,000 gallon (6,000 case) winery on the property, to be situated by the main gate down near the private road that comes in off of Silverado Trail near the Yountville Cross Road. Caves are designed to go straight back into the hill that, far, far above, the house occupies. Your neighbors certainly would not object. After all, Silverado Vineyard is across the street (the house looks down on its roof, with all of Yountville in the distance), the new Don Quixote Winery is to the right against the slopes, with Schafer Winery to the left. All in all, a pretty good bunch of neighbors if you happen to be in the business of turning grapes into expensive wine.

If you want more details on this and every other conceivable aspect of this property, you can always ask Steve Gregory for the booklet on the house and land. It is full of such fascinating reading as a Plant Tissue Analysis Reports listing such things as total nitrogen, manganese, zinc and copper; the Commentary on Lab Results; and Irrigation Monitoring. About half an inch thick (with lots of color photographs, charts and diagrams), it is not as hefty as the owners manual for a Mercedes S600 (a four-door sedan which goes for a paltry $144,000 or so), but still it could make for fascinating hours under the Christmas tree. Instead of reading up on the GPS system, the anti-lock brake system and the care and feeding of a V-12 engine, the lucky recipient could be parsing the nuances of the Endangered Species Act, Seismic Zone Discussions and County Use Codes. All of this secure in the fact that the value of Pillar Rock is likely to go nowhere but up, while that fancy new car dropped in value the second it left the dealer’s lot. So in the end, it’s just a question of values … and a few million dollars. The big shiny bow, for both, is optional.