A unique wine heritage under the hammer: 1,142 vineyard lots at auction in Italy in 2019

If you combine the words auction and wine, your mind immediately flies to the large lots of the most prestigious auction houses in the world, where every year, collectible bottles and precious labels of great Italian wine end up under the hammer. But there’s more: in 2019, 1,142 lots of vineyards were auctioned in Italy, equal to a base auction value of 250 million euros, and which include real enological excellences. Consider that, as shown by the analysis of the AstaSy Analytics Centre of Npls Re_Solutions, 40% of these are in Tuscany, home of great productions loved all over the world, where the price of the vineyards at auction is over 100 million euros, but whose value is at least double. Right in Montalcino, land of Brunello, there is one of the finest vineyards auctioned: the lot includes five and a half hectares of Brunello di Montalcino, one and a half hectares of Rosso di Montalcino and another part of Sant’Antimo Rosso Doc. Also at auction are over 15 hectares in Chianti and the Morellino di Scansano area, which include not only land, but also wineries and farms.
Immediately after the Tuscan lands, Sicily, which accounts for 7% of the total number of vineyards that went up for auction, with the enchantment of greater value in Pantelleria. In March (in time for Covid-19 and then postponed), an entire winery of the prized Passito, probably the most famous in the world, was auctioned off at a base price of 2 million. The tour of the vineyards at auction continues in Puglia, which has 7% of the beaten vineyards, where the land in Negramaro, Primitivo di Manduria and Salento wines are involved, and where the total price of the entire Apulian enological heritage auctioned amounts to almost 18 million, but estimates speak of real value over 40 million. But the list also includes other territories of the wine of excellence, such as Barolo and Franciacorta.