French land agency Safer said the number of vineyard transactions in the combined Provence and the Rhône Valley area rose by 7.6% in 2019, to 1,540, but the total value of deals jumped by nearly 55% versus 2018, to €226m.
Most recently, the Prats family, who formerly owned Château Cos d’Estournel in Bordeaux, joined with French businessman Stéphane Courbit to buy Château d’Estoublon in Les Baux de Provence appellation south of Avignon.
Adam Dakin, of estate agency Wine Objectives, told Decanter.com earlier this summer that ‘Provence has been absolutely booming’ of late, as buyers have sought a piece of this burgeoning hub of rosé wines.
Dakin said that land towards the coast tends to be more expensive, but you can still pick up vineyards for around €70,000 per hectare in the upper parts of the Var, for instance.
There is quite a large area to consider, and it’s worth doing your research in advance. The Côtes de Provence appellation covers 20,100ha and produces the equivalent of 130m bottles of wine annually, of which 90% is rosé, according to the region’s wine council.
Other appellations include Coteaux d’Aix en Provence, which covers 4,127ha, the Coteaux Varois en Provence, covering 2,633ha.
There are also ways of setting up a commercial wine business by buying in grapes, rather than starting out with the vineyards themselves, as the owners of Château Mirabeau explained to Decanter’s Georgina Hindle.
Provence/Rhône border: Vineyard estate with Château in the Luberon, listed for the €4.25m
Photo credit: Wine Objectives.
For prospective buyers seeking a slightly larger-scale winemaking project, this ‘bastide’ in the Luberon north of Aix-en-Provence has 13.5ha of vines alongside a large main residence, three gîtes and several hectares of crop land.
The Luberon area boasts a national park and sits between Provence and the Rhône Valley – with the Luberon AOC at the southern tip of the Rhône Valley wine area.
Wine for this estate is currently made a local cooperative, which is highly regarded, according to the listing by estate agency Wine Objectives.
A buyer would have the opportunity to continue this arrangement or invest in their own winemaking facilities at the estate, it said, describing the property as a ‘rare’ find in the area.
