Grape escapes: make the vineyard dream come true
I’D guess that at some point in your career in the City you’ve sat back and daydreamed about a life outdoors, working the land, relaxing at sunset on a terrace overlooking your vines and sipping the product of your labour.
Vineyard properties are among the most magical, particularly those in the well-known grape regions of France and Italy. But if you’re thinking of buying a vineyard, first be absolutely sure about what you’re after: a wine business, or a lovely property with a few vines on the side?
According to Rupert Fawcett, head of Knight Frank’s Italian department, most properties offer one or the other. Then there’s the fact that you’ll probably have to settle for making table wine even if you do have loads of vines. “The types of vineyards producing really top quality wines barely come to market,” says Fawcett. “Therefore you need to be passionate about wine-making for its own sake or even for a bit of fun on the side.” Picture the type of plonk you get in most European village cafes – and imagine one with your label on it.
So, given that the Krug estate is not about to become available, the prospect of making a fortune, either in terms of property appreciation or the business, is far-fetched. Having vines does add to a property’s sale value, but the cost of caring for them, either by you or by a hired farmer if it’s not your primary residence, is high. If you want to start afresh, replanting vines and building a winery is enormously expensive – new equipment can cost a small vineyard £1m, and after 15 years of wear and tear, will not add value to the property.
Therefore many wine-makers send their harvest off to the local co-op for production and bottling, then take their share of the result. Not a bad compromise.
Old Luxters Vineyard, Henley Price: £3.5m
A successful, awardwinning winery and brewery business with a lovely farmhouse and cottage, overlooking the Hambleden Valley. Contact: Knight Frank,
01491 844 900.
CHATEAU, GERS Price: €2.7
A rare 18th century “chartreuse” with 42 ha. of land including appellation contrôlée grapes. Contact: Gascony Properties: 0033 562625406.
BRITISH VINEYARDS | WINE-GROWING AT HOME
An interesting, very zeitgeisty alternative to buying a vineyard in Chianti is to buy one in…Henley. The UK has been slowly rising through the ranks of all things oenological and is now producing top of the range bubbly (some, like Nyetimber, costing more than a bottle of Krug), whites and roses. Chapel Down’s Bacchus in Kent and West Sussex’s Bolney Estate are both fine examples. Even Richard Balfour Lynn, CEO of of the Alternative Hotel Group, which owns De Vere, produces the award-winning Balfour Brut rose from his vineyard Hush Heath, in Kent.
The English vineyard market is still small, says Toby Milbank, of Knight Frank’s country department. But because of the improvement in the wine, and the fact that the UK?now has some of the best wine-making technology in the world, there’s more interest in buying them. Unlike in Europe, Milbank says that most of the British vineyards he sells are family-run businesses, fully kitted up as wineries and sometimes breweries too – therefore most buyers devote themselves to it full-time.