High values in Burgundy lifted average vineyard prices in France last year, even as parts of Bordeaux and the Rhône Valley faced a deteriorating wine real-estate market, according to French rural property agency Groupe Safer.
The price of a premier cru white-wine property in Côte-d’Or rose for a 28th year, climbing 13% to an average €2.25m per hectare. For vines producing premier cru red wines, prices rose 9.2% to €950,000 per ha. Communal applications also appreciated, with average gains of 8% to 10%, depending on colour and location.
‘Only the Côte-d’Or appellations continue to climb, while stability prevails in the other prestigious appellations, and sometimes significant declines affect many red-wine appellations,’ according to Safer.
The agency said the French wine-property market was one of ‘two speeds’ in 2023. Across France, the average cost per ha for vines within protected designations of origin rose 1.5% to €153,500 last year.
The number of wine real estate transactions fell 7.6%, hurt by fewer deals in Bordeaux and the Rhône Valley, which suffered from a crisis in the red wine market and a slump in the Cognac region, which faces a drop in exports. In all three areas, sales of both vines and entire domains fell.
The value of French wine property that changed owners rose 15.8% to €1.17bn, an increase Safer said was due to a small number of ‘exceptional transactions’.
Among last year’s deals, Maison Joseph Drouhin bought two properties in Burgundy, adding more than 20ha. Investment fund Solexia acquired 7ha with
