Bordeaux vineyard prices in 2020: Trends to watch

Terroir and environmental practices joined the importance of appellation and classification when setting Bordeaux vineyard prices in 2020, according to the latest study by Safer, the French land agency and agricultural body.

This annual report, released in early June, is always an interesting moment, even more so after a year that put unprecedented pressures on the wine industry and agriculture in general.

It showed that prices of top Bordeaux vineyard land proved remarkably robust – with eight top-name estates accounting for 72% of the value of all Bordeaux vineyard sales in 2020. I’m guessing we can include Vray Croix de Gay, Le Prieuré, Mazèyres and maybe du Tertre within that, if the signature for du Tertre was complete at the end of last year.

It means we can expect classified and equivalent vines to remain sought after by big business in the years to come.

But there were also fascinating trends at the lower level that show just how responsive the price of land is to wider realities.

In total across France, 14,600 hectares (ha) of vineyard land was sold for €861m in 2020, spread over 8,190 individual sales. That translates to an average of around €110,000 per hectare, rising to an average of €150,000 for AOC vines.

In the Bordeaux region, the average overall price of a hectare of vines was up 4.7% compared to 2019, to €128,500 per hectare.

The same eight large sales cited above accounted for this rise, and helped the average price of vines in Pauillac, Pomerol, St-Julien and Margaux combined to rise by 8.9%.

Yet the number of individual transactions across Bordeaux dropped by 15%, with 300 sales compared to 550 in 2019. Just over 1,700ha changed hands (compared to around 2,000ha in 2019) – with the drop in both numbers of transactions and prices most evident in the smaller appellations.

This means, perhaps depressingly, that the trends of the past few years have widened even further. Pomerol rose by 5% to an average of €1.9m per ha, with Pessac-Léognan up 20% to €600,000/ha (€750,000/ha at the top end), and Pauillac up a staggering 22% to €2.8m.

Meanwhile, Côtes de Bourg, Blaye and Cadillac Côtes de Bordeaux have all seen prices drop by 10% to, respectively, €19,000/ha, €16,000/ha and €14,000/ha.

The generic Médoc appellations are also strongly down – AOC Médoc down 20% to €40,000/ha average and Haut-Médoc down 13% to €65,000/ha.

Look closer, though, and you start to see some fascinating trends.

Certified organic estates, as long as they are in good health and well looked after, managed to attract well above the average price, rising to €22,000/ha in the Côtes.

And terroir counts, too. Even conventionally-farmed estates on good terroirs reached €15,000-20,000 across the Côtes, while those that are on less impressive soils, or in zones that have regularly been hit by frost in recent vintages, slid right down in some cases to €4,000/ha.

Frost hitting Bordeaux vineyard prices

The frost risk factor is impacting prices across the board. In AOC Graves, where the average price remains at €34,000/ha, there is a significant split between the best gravel outcrops that reached up to €50,000/ha, compared to sandier soils that are more exposed to frost and where the average price dropped down to €25,000.

Frost risk may also play a factor in the widening price disparity between Moulis and Listrac.

The more exposed AOC Listrac saw prices drop by 7% to €65,000/ha on average in 2020.

It’s interesting to see this in the context of Bruno Borie choosing as of the 2020 vintage to label his Listrac estates under AOC Haut-Médoc for the newly-created Madame de Beaucaillou wine.

In AOC Moulis, which has more gravel terraces and is closer to the Gironde Estuary in the main, prices were stable at €80,000/ha on average.

Another pair of appellations to see a similar widening of fortunes include AOC Fronsac, which after three years of stability dropped slightly to €28,000/ha from €30,000/ha, and AOC Canon-Fronsac, which remained stable at €100,000/ha.

Terroir influencing vineyard prices

The rise of terroir as a genuine indicator of price outside of classified Bordeaux is also seen by the fact that within the Côtes, only Castillon resisted the general drop in prices, mainly because local St-Emilion names have been buying up there.

I can think of the de Boüards at Angélus as one example, although the recently launched Tempo d’Angélus wine is for now being bottled as AOC Bordeaux.

You see the same story in St-Emilion, with Safer reporting that buyers are increasingly picky about terroir.

The less attractive sectors in the appellation are stable at €250,000/ha, while the most prestigious parts head up to €3.7million/ha.

Sauternes holds steady

Sauternes and Barsac are still struggling, although have not dropped further over the past year and remain at €30,000/ha on average.

They were, no doubt, not helped by the fact that the Covid-related travel bans have put the brakes on the wine tourism developments at estates such as Guiraud and Lafaurie-Peyraguey.

The less prestigious sweet wine appellations of Loupiac and Saint-Croix du Mont continue to be the least expensive AOCs in Bordeaux, dropping to €12,000/ha from €13,000/ha.

Classified Bordeaux ‘defies gravity’

And above all, the land of classified Bordeaux continues to defy gravity. AOC Pauillac stands at €2.8m/ha average, up 22% in a year. The best terroirs of the appellation are up even more strongly, by around 35%, mostly accounted for by purchases of land by existing classified estates.

As there are less and less independent estates to buy from, Safer expects this to upward price trajectory to continue.

Similarly, AOC St-Julien was up 23% to €1.6m/ha on average, with the best vines up to around €2m/ha, and AOC Margaux was up 15% to €1.5m/ha, with the best terroir going up to €2.5m/ha. Again, the rise in Margaux was influenced by existing estates buying up land, such as Château d’Issan buying Pontac-Lynch.

AOC Pomerol rivals Pauillac with prices of up to €2m/ha on average. The very best spots have the highest prices in Bordeaux at €7m/ha, while the the lowest price was still at €1.3m/ha.

Are there any bargains left?

Well, you still have AOC Lalande de Pomerol just next door to Pomerol that is up just 4% to €250,000/ha average. That just about maintains it as one of the (relative) bargains in the region, especially the best clay soils of Néac.

And finally, St-Estèphe has remained stable at €1m/ha average for the best spots, with prices at €400,000 for cooler clay soils – surely a buying opportunity for someone who believes global warming is only going one way…?

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