Champagne: one hectare of vines costs € 900 000 on average

ccording to SAFER (French Organisation of Rural Landsales), prices of the Champagne vineyard rose continuously during 2011. Especially in the Marne region. There, trading houses are concentrating their purchases. They buy mainly crus, in order to rent them to growers who cannot buy anymore these lands. However, one has to note that there is a significant share of transactions (mainly share transfer) which escapes to the SAFER control. Price differences (from 774 000 € per hectare a in the Aube region up to 1.2 million euros in the Côte des Blancs) are reduced between Champagne sectors. Across the vineyard, one can find important price variations depending on the terroir quality.

After a steady decline from 2008 until 2010, the SAFER notes that the market is now exploding. Everything seems to increase : + 46% in surface terms and +66% in value, whereas the transaction numer only rose by 7%. Prices rose by 4.6% this year. The average price per hectare exceeded 900 000 €. The Champagne region represents 7% (580) of domestic vineyard transactions, for 1% of the area and 15% of the value.