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Cost of vineyards around the world, with or without a villa

Knight Frank‘s quotations for villas with vineyard in the most famous wine making regions around the world and those by Assoenologi for vineyards in Italy

read for you By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Bordeaux-France

Knight Frank is the largest independent estate agents in the world with 330 offices and 12.000 properties on sale. But most of all it is a formidable consulting and information office. They like vineyards and wineries very much. That type of business Knight Frank keeps a constant eye on, and is summarized in a report published on January 7th last:
•Vineyards are considered a good investment all over the world
• Mendoza and Tuscany have had the major increases in value in 2013 with 25% and 20% (music to my ears)
• The Spanish vineyards have registered the major decrease with 20% since 2000, the Italians with 15,3% and the French with 11,8%
• The extension of vineyards in New Zealand and China has increased by 164 % and by 90 % during the last 12 years.
In December Knight Frank published its “Global Vineyard Index 2013” a type of report regarding the value of wineries with a surface of less than 5 hectares. Its estimates, brought to us by WineNews, are very very interesting.
The highest prices are in Bordeaux for vineyards of Merlot, Cabernet, Sauvignon and Semillon in properties with traditional stone buildings, which have been renovated and with swimming pools. The values varies between 20.500 to 2.500.000 dollars per hectare and has decreased by 4% since last year.
Studying the report one understands how these most sought after properties are those where together with the vineyards there is also a historic building to be used as a holiday home. Evidently the attraction for wine is entwined with the desire of a lifestyle where there is contact with nature, where many friends can come and visit.

Gambero rosso conquers the Vikings

Donatella’s first time abroad with the Gambero Rosso

Sweden, a cold nation with a warm heart and, a nation of gluttons. Producers from all over Italy with Gambero Rosso in a 18th century dancing hall with 500 buyers

Seen for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Violante for Gambero Rosso event in Stockholm

We arrive in Stockholm with this year’s first snowfall, for us its cold, for the locals it’s unusually mild. The city is beautiful with its immense buildings, all perfect and tidy. We are in the north, where Father Christmas lives and there are evident traces of the festivities just gone. There are still lots of lights in the roads, lots of pile of fir trees piled high in the squares and a few trolls with red hats on.
The food market is a Swedish version of Eataly with all sorts of salmon, shrimps and herrings. Karina Tholin takes us to the Sommelier Association office

tomte-babbo

where they are preparing two youngsters for a competition: in five minutes they must describe in English a white wine of which they do not know the origin and they manage it perfectly. These Swedes do not take things lightly; they have just positioned one of them on the podium as best Euopean sommelier. The wine safety vault-treasure chest, with its iron bars, is spectacular, it resembles a medieval prison.

Donatella’s red Il Drago wags its tail

Should the 327 small denominations disappear?

Donatella presents her super Brunello 2009

We have made only13.000 bottles of Brunello 2009. Less than 1/3 compared to the usual production. A brave decision which we hope our clients will appreciate.

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Brunello-2009

We chose to bottle as Brunello only the wine that, in our opinion, was worthy of being such a wine. We have used what normally becomes Prime Donne selection and Riserva, which in the 2009 vintage have not been produced.

The reasons behind these courageous decisions depend on the climate of that year.
In 2009 the winter and the spring were particularly rainy followed by a very hot summer. The grapes were on their way to a complete ripening when, at the beginning of September, thunderstorms brought a lot of rain and a rapid decrease in temperatures to 10°C. The grape skins contracted so as to keep shut in the precious tannins and anthocyans which are the true richness in red wines apt for long ageing, such as Brunello. Then the sunny days came back which “softened” the skins but the really good clusters were those picked for last, around the 9th of October. From those grapes we obtained our Brunello.