> James and Catherine Kinglake fulfilled every wine lover’s dream when they bought a 72-hectare (178-acre) winery near Limoux, France. Situated in the Languedoc region with views of the Pyrénées, Domaine Begude has over 25 hectares of vines.
So less than 40% of their winery's acreage is actually vine.
The one other winery for which the article gives numbers has a similar percentage.
Any here familiar, to comment on why so much expensive land is being left idle?
Alcohol consumption and therefore demand for wine is at historic lows. In many cases, a winery is a hobby project currently, not a sustainable, profitable business.
Prices are down now, and will continue to decline into the future, assuming consumption decline trajectory holds.
- Wine consumption in the EU is expected to continue falling over the next ten years driven by ongoing changes in how and what people drink, according to new findings from the European Commission.
- The group’s EU Agricultural Outlook 2025-35 expects wine consumption in the EU will decline 0.9% a year until 2035 to roughly 19.3 litres per capita, a 9% decrease on consumption per capita between 2021 and 2025.
If a vineyard is just a hobby for Mr Uber-Rich, who doesn't care about losing money, that argument makes sense. But the article devotes a whole lotta words to buying and operating vineyards as viable businesses. And I'm thinking the "losing money is fine" vineyards are a micro percentage of global wine production.
So - Is there a World Wine Control Commission that is forcing all growers to leave X% of their land idle, in order to avoid a supply glut? Or massive gov't subsidies that allow individual growers still make their mortgage payments and payroll expenses, when reducing their vineyard's production by (say) 50% also reduced their vineyard's gross income by 50%?
> James and Catherine Kinglake fulfilled every wine lover’s dream when they bought a 72-hectare (178-acre) winery near Limoux, France. Situated in the Languedoc region with views of the Pyrénées, Domaine Begude has over 25 hectares of vines.
So less than 40% of their winery's acreage is actually vine.
The one other winery for which the article gives numbers has a similar percentage.
Any here familiar, to comment on why so much expensive land is being left idle?
Alcohol consumption and therefore demand for wine is at historic lows. In many cases, a winery is a hobby project currently, not a sustainable, profitable business.
Prices are down now, and will continue to decline into the future, assuming consumption decline trajectory holds.
https://www.oiv.int/sites/default/files/2026-05/OIV-State_of...
https://www.just-drinks.com/news/wine-consumption-declines-t...
- Wine consumption in the EU is expected to continue falling over the next ten years driven by ongoing changes in how and what people drink, according to new findings from the European Commission.
- The group’s EU Agricultural Outlook 2025-35 expects wine consumption in the EU will decline 0.9% a year until 2035 to roughly 19.3 litres per capita, a 9% decrease on consumption per capita between 2021 and 2025.
If a vineyard is just a hobby for Mr Uber-Rich, who doesn't care about losing money, that argument makes sense. But the article devotes a whole lotta words to buying and operating vineyards as viable businesses. And I'm thinking the "losing money is fine" vineyards are a micro percentage of global wine production.
So - Is there a World Wine Control Commission that is forcing all growers to leave X% of their land idle, in order to avoid a supply glut? Or massive gov't subsidies that allow individual growers still make their mortgage payments and payroll expenses, when reducing their vineyard's production by (say) 50% also reduced their vineyard's gross income by 50%?