Updated 2 June 2026 — this article now incorporates the full-year 2025 DVF data, following the publication of our observatory of vineyard prices in France.
Buying a wine property is a lengthy process. To help you, we present the 8 different steps of this process, which commits you for many years.
First of all, you need to clearly define your wine project. In which wine region do you wish to set up? What vineyard area? What marketing model? These questions are essential because they will affect all the subsequent steps of your project.
Indeed, the price of vines varies according to the wine regions and appellations, which has a direct impact on the budget. Some wine regions offer many properties for sale, whereas opportunities are very rare in others. The marketing model you choose will also have an impact on the profitability of your business as well as on the labour required. Direct sales require a great deal of time, whereas selling grape juice to a cooperative or a merchant will allow you to focus on tending the vines.
This project will be stronger if it is built on concrete experience. Training and experience will be marks of credibility that you will no doubt need later on in your journey.
Based on your project, you will be able to define an initial budget. It will not be final but will allow you to focus your search. The budget will depend on many criteria: your self-financing, the profitability of the chosen production, the necessary investments and, of course, your income objectives.
This step will probably require the assistance of professionals. You can turn to an accounting firm, a banker, or the installation advisers at the chamber of agriculture. The first contacts made with sellers will also help you in this process.
With your project and budget defined, you can finally begin an active search. You can then refine your search criteria by prioritising them: with or without a house, purchase or rental of the vines, capacity, age and functionality of the cellar and other buildings, etc.
The perfect wine property is rare and often has one main drawback: its sale price. You may therefore need to make trade-offs between your selection criteria. The search can of course be carried out on ma-propriete.fr, whose primary purpose is to enable winegrowers to set up or re-establish. You can also consult the installation register (répertoire départ installation) of your department, contact the SAFER or a specialised estate agency.
If possible, avoid carrying out too many visits. Instead, make a strong selection before visiting and prioritise your visits accordingly. Finally, when you have found the place that seems to match your project, study it in detail before entering into a negotiation: mandatory diagnostics, financial information, necessary investments.
Note that you will usually still have to wait between 4 and 8 months before starting your new wine-growing activity.
You have found your future wine estate, you have all the necessary information, and the project is compatible with your budget. It is time to enter the discussion phase.
Before negotiating, it is essential to position the asking price against the real market. Our observatory of vineyard prices in France provides you with references drawn from DVF data (Demandes de Valeurs Foncières), which records all vine transactions registered by the tax authorities. In 2025, based on nearly 17,600 transactions, the national median price stands at €23,985/ha.
The median price — the value at which half of all transactions are concluded — is the most representative indicator of the current market. The average price (€205,441/ha in 2025), on the other hand, is strongly pulled upwards by the most prestigious appellations and does not reflect the reality of the vast majority of transactions. The table below gives you the benchmarks by major wine region to calibrate your negotiation.
| Wine region | 2025 DVF median price (€/ha) |
|---|---|
| Champagne | €1,000,000/ha |
| Burgundy | €125,000/ha |
| Savoie | €57,216/ha |
| Provence | €39,864/ha |
| Jura | €39,361/ha |
| Beaujolais | €39,312/ha |
| Cognac | €28,636/ha |
| Rhône Valley | €20,357/ha |
| Loire Valley | €17,000/ha |
| Bordeaux | €15,434/ha |
| Roussillon | €13,918/ha |
| Languedoc | €13,531/ha |
| South-West | €9,205/ha |
Source: DVF, processed by ma-propriete.fr. Median price of vine transactions, full-year 2025.
These DVF figures reflect the market for the typical buyer (actual transactions). They complement — without contradicting — the SAFER references, which give more weight to the major appellations. Beyond the price of the bare land, many other elements may enter into the discussion:
To succeed in your negotiation, you must demonstrate patience and empathy. The negotiation phase is very important, and it is at this stage that the use of a professional intermediary is probably the most useful.
Once an agreement is reached, it must be finalised in a written contract: the preliminary sale agreement (compromis de vente, also called a promise of sale or pre-contract). It is necessary to call upon a professional to draw it up. It must indeed set out the details of the agreements between the parties and give legal force to this agreement.
Drafting this contract will take from a few days to a few weeks depending on the complexity of the file and the progress of each party's procedures (in particular financing). It is in fact more important than the final deed of purchase because it is this contract that establishes the irrevocable commitment of each party and therefore your commitment to buy.
If you have gone through an estate agency or a notary, you will probably need to plan for the payment of a security deposit at this stage.
You will generally need bank financing. Note that there are now many other possibilities through crowdfunding or solutions for financing land and vines. We present some of them in the Financing section of our blog.
You will therefore need to gather all the financing necessary to complete your purchase. Your bank will most often ask you to carry out a forecast economic study before giving a written agreement. We advise you to finalise your financing during your negotiation phases and therefore before signing the preliminary sale agreement.
During your bank negotiation, remember to include all the elements that make up the file: interest rates, the duration of the loans, bank guarantees, death insurance, and arrangement fees. To go further on this subject, see our article Financing a wine acquisition: options and strategies.
It is very rare for the pre-contract to contain no conditions precedent. These conditions are mainly included in the deed to protect you. You therefore commit to buying the estate described subject to:
The list of these conditions is not exhaustive and will be a matter of negotiation with the seller. It is therefore only once these conditions have been lifted that your commitment to buy will have become final and that you will be able to complete your acquisition.
You are now ready to sign your deeds of purchase. Sales of real property (house, cellars, vines, etc.) are subject to an authenticated deed before the notary. Notarial deed fees are generally between 7 and 8%, of which just over 5% are taxes payable to the Public Treasury.
Sales of movable property (equipment, wine stocks, etc.) may either be included in the notary's deeds or be the subject of separate private deeds. Deeds of sale of shares or company units may also be drawn up with or without the involvement of a notary.
The signing of these deeds will of course be accompanied by the agreed payments and then by the handing over of the keys.
You have reached the end of this acquisition journey, which has taken several months. You will probably still have a number of formalities related to your take-over (notably with customs) to complete in the first days and weeks. Above all, it is the beginning of your wine project, which will carry you for many years.
