Property in France: owning a French vineyard

By Zoe�Dare Hall 1055AM GMT 09 March 2010

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Previous of Images Next Pick of the stand Girondine Chateau in Languedoc Caroline, Ellie, Sean and Sophia Feely Restored farmhouse in Plan de la Tour, Provence

For Caroline and Sean Feely, apropos winemakers in Bergerac has brought their family a lifestyle they outlayed years yearning for.

Their income might not review to their days in investment and program in Dublin, but by producing 20,000 bottles a year and charity a legal legal holiday let, booze classes, tours and a vine share programme, they have "a medium living", says Caroline, 41.

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The Feelys changed to south-west France five years ago with a toddler, Sophia, right away seven, and baby Ellie in tow. In poke of a residence and apart embankment with at slightest twenty-five acres of vines for around €360,000 (�312,000 at todays rate), they found only what they were seeking for, by the group My-French-House.com, in the encampment of Saussignac.

They have incited the cheap Chateau Haut Garrigue in to their family home, they rent out their legal legal holiday lodge (wildearthvineyards.com) and have converted the vineyard to deliver organic and biodynamic winemaking methods.

"We jumped in at the low finish from day one, you do all ourselves, with specialists to advise, but it was tough," Caroline says. "Wine is a prolonged diversion we usually expelled the initial reds in mid-2008, 3 years after nearing here and the full on, as when the vineyard is quiet, the winery is manic and clamp versa. But we love it.

"We consequence less and we work far harder now, but we are following the dream." For any one meditative of following suit, Caroline says to have certain you have sufficient income to cover dual years of handling costs, stand in the time and the cost you guess for renovations, and beware of the bureaucracy in France."

Owning a vineyard is still the mental condition for most Britons, but they conclude right away that the a rarely rival business, too, says Harris Raphael from the Dordogne-based estate group Pioneer France.

Vineyard properties on Raphaels books range from a two-bedroom residence with a chai (the construction containing the booze vats) and 6.25 acres of vines for �347,000, to a five-bedroom residence nearby Prigord with 12.5 acres of vines for �694,000 and a castle with 60 acres for �8.7 million.

"You will have to compensate celestial total for a skill in the particularly tranquil appellations such as St Emilion or Medoc. Bergerac is somewhat less costly and, if you see in areas that are not reserved to specific appellations but still furnish great wines, skill prices begin to see cheap," Raphael says.

At the alternative finish of the scale, Rupert Birch, a former investment banker, outlayed a substantial total on construction his home and winery on his 45 acres of land nearby Aix-en-Provence. Tired of the rat competition in London, he motionless to move to southern France, buy his vineyard and began a new hold up as a winemaker.

He outlayed �3.5 million on the land, a state-of-the-art winery and on construction his fantastic nine-bedroom palace unaware 3 towering ranges. On twenty-seven acres of vines, he produces up to 60,000 bottles of organic red booze a year. The land, residence and winery are for sale by Aylesford for �4.6 million (www.aylesford.com; 020 7351 2383).

"Id never grown a chopped tomatoes in my life, but I longed for to see if I could emanate something from blemish a great booze that would get approval from the internal community, as the peculiarity of whats in the bottle is the usually approach to benefit acceptance as nonetheless an additional Englishman perplexing to have booze here," says Rupert, 50. He complicated winemaking at university in Dijon prior to shopping the land.

"It was about creation my own wine, becoming different my hold up and it has been forever some-more rewarding than I ever imagined," he says.

"Its a full-time job. If I were a hobby winemaker who didnt wish to get my hands dirty, I could nominee it all. But Im the man on the tractor at 5am."

Rupert exports a third of the wine, sells a third locally and a third goes to great restaurants in Provence and Paris, saying an annual turnover of around �200,000. But after costs, he still only about breaks even, "which is about the most appropriate you can expect", he says.

"You have to see at this as a lifestyle, not a approach to have money," says Rupert, whose subsequent plan is to turn a winemaker in Patagonia. "And for someone similar to me who gets wearied easily, the perfect, given when traffic with wines and vines you are never confronted with the same resources twice."

For Niall Caven, a road residence owners from Oxford, the plea was the bureaucracy concerned in shopping and restoring a busted hamlet, nearby Carcassonne in the Languedoc. He paid for it for €1 million and planted it with twelve hectares of vines. As the largest writer in his internal co-operative, he creates up to 300,000 bottles of white and ros booze a year.

"Im the initial new owners of the estate given the 19th century and it has been a large rebuilding plan that has concerned five years of suffering and fad the suffering especially by perplexing to benefit formulation accede and traffic with French bureaucracy," says Niall, 53.

He spends one week a month on his French estate, Domaine de Cantalauze, staying in the converted one-bedroom apple store, whilst he rents out the luxuriously renovated 17th-century estate residence and the 100-year-old farmhouse. Between them they have 9 bedrooms and dual swimming pools, that he lets for up to �3,500 a week by Holidaylettings.co.uk (home No 107971).

"I didnt come here to have my fortune," says Niall. "Its something Ive regularly longed for to do. Its receiving far longer than planned, but the a pleasing estate that I get vehement about when I only see at it."

GETTING STARTED

A skill with 5-8 acres of vines allows you to furnish a little wine, though your concentration will be peculiarity rather than quantity. A standard small booze writer would have 13-38 acres. Expect to compensate anything from �350,000 to multiform million, depending on the peculiarity of vines. Properties with vineyards in the prestigious appellations, such as St Emilion and Medoc, authority reward prices. For great worth head to Provence or Languedoc.The initial step for most would-be buyers is to hit the Socit dAmnagement Foncier et dEtablissement Rural, well known as Safer (www.safer.fr) that helps immature booze growers find vineyards and finance.

Useful websites

proprietesdefrance.co.uk and frenchentree.com have a preference of wine-growing estates.

vinecole.com a booze propagandize in the Languedoc with courses in English and French for would-be vineyard buyers. winetourisminfrance.com get to know your grapes and regions.

frenchwineadventures.com rent a row of vines in south west France to give you a ambience of being a wine-maker.

FOR SALE

Restored farmhouse in Plan de la Tour, Provence, nearby the actress Johnny Depps home, with 1.8 acres together with vineyard. Winkworth France, 020 8576 5582; www.winkworth.fr Seven-bedroom 16th-century castle in Sauve in the Languedoc, below, with 39 acres, half dedicated to organic vines, and winemaking facilities. �1m, Savills, savills.co.uk/abroad; 020 7016 3740.Six-bedroom Girondine Chateau with adjoining two-bedroom cottage, pool and operative vineyard on twenty-one acres. Last year it constructed 368 hectolitres of wine. €2.65m, Knight Frank, 020 7629 8171.