Buying a Vineyard Estate

Picture a farmhouse at the end of a row of vines. The buyer standing in the yard may want the house, the vines or the whole enterprise. Each part has its own rules, and the sections that follow take them in turn.

What exactly is being bought?

An estate can comprise a residence. It can comprise agricultural land, which is taxed, regulated and transferred differently from residential property; vines, which have an age, a variety and a productive life; and authorisations to plant, where any are held. In some cases it also includes a business, with its company, employees, supply contracts and stock. A purchase can cover only some of these.

Who has the right to buy the land first?

Where agricultural land is sold, some persons have a right of pre-emption (prelazione agraria): the right to buy on the same terms before the land is sold to a third party. The law provides for three kinds of holder. The first is the tenant, or sharecropper, who has cultivated the land for at least two years, on the terms of the sale.^[1] The second is the neighbouring owner who is a direct cultivator (coltivatore diretto, a farmer who works the land personally with his or her family), or a professional farming entrepreneur (IAP, imprenditore agricolo professionale) registered in the agricultural social-security scheme, provided that no tenant, sharecropper or similar is settled on the land being sold.^[2] The third is the agricultural cooperative, where at least half of the directors and members are direct cultivators.^[3]

The seller must notify the holder by registered letter, enclosing the preliminary contract with the buyer’s name, the price and the other terms; the holder has 30 days to exercise the right. If the seller does not notify, or the price stated is higher than that of the sale, the holder may redeem the land from the buyer (riscatto, the right to take the land from the buyer, at the price paid) within one year of the transcription of the sale. Pre-emption is excluded in certain cases, including exchanges, forced sales and land designated by a plan for building, industrial or tourist use.

For this reason the ownership and tenancy position of each parcel is normally established before an offer. The cadastral parcels, the tenancy contracts and the position of neighbouring owners are the starting points.

Is the vineyard worked, leased or unused?

A vineyard can be worked by the owner, leased or unused. If the owner works it, the vineyard passes with the equipment, employees and contracts of the farm, if included in the sale, and the business needs to be checked as a business. If it is leased, an agricultural lease may run for a long time and may be difficult to end, and it can carry the tenant’s pre-emption right. If it is unused, it needs work before it produces again; the cost depends on the plants and the parcel.

Grape supply agreements, leases, employment contracts and any cooperative membership are documents to read before an offer.

What do the planting rules mean for a vineyard?

Since 1 January 2016, and until 31 December 2045, wine-grape vineyards may be planted or replanted only with an authorisation (autorizzazione all’impianto) granted under the ministerial decree of 19 December 2022 implementing an EU regulation.^[4] The authorisations are free and, as a rule, not transferable, except in cases including inheritance, merger or demerger, marriage or civil union, divorce and other cases assessed by the Ministry.^[5]

The 2022 decree gave new-planting authorisations three years from issue and replanting authorisations three years, or six years for replanting on the same area that was grubbed up.^[6][7] An EU regulation in force from 18 March 2026,^[8] applied by a ministerial decree of 23 July 2026,^[9] changed the durations. Under that decree, new-planting authorisations are valid until the last day of the third marketing year after the one in which they were granted,^[10] and replanting authorisations valid on 18 March 2026 or granted since then until the last day of the eighth.^[11] The decree was published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale of 11 September 2026.^[12] It amended the 2022 decree on durations and penalties,^[13] and left unchanged the rule that the authorisations are not transferable, with the exceptions stated above.^[14]

In each year the Ministry publishes the area available for new plantings; for 2026 the Ministry’s directorial decree of 28 November 2025 governs the application.^[15]

What does the vineyard register record?

Every vineyard unit suitable for wine grapes must be entered in the national vineyard register (schedario viticolo), kept by the regions through the national agricultural information system (SIAN).^[16] The register attributes to each vineyard the suitability to produce grapes for DOCG, DOC and IGT wines, the Italian categories of geographical designation of wine, based on the production regulations (disciplinari).^[16] The regions manage it.

What a parcel may produce therefore depends on its entry in the register and on the regulation of the designation concerned.

How is the land taxed?

The transfer of agricultural land to a buyer who is not a coltivatore diretto or IAP is subject to registration tax at 15%; see “The True Cost of Buying a Home in Tuscany”. If the purchase includes a business, the tax treatment differs and depends on how the transfer is structured.

Who can buy a vineyard estate?

A non-EU citizen who is not lawfully resident in Italy can act validly only where reciprocity exists, which the notary checks case by case.^[17] EU and EEA citizens are outside that question. The same rule applies to agricultural land as to other property; see “How a Foreigner Buys Property in Italy”.

What is checked before an offer?

Pre-emption, planting authorisations and the treatment of an agricultural business turn on the parcels and contracts involved. The checks normally carried out before an offer are these:

– ownership and tenancy of each parcel, and any holder of pre-emption;

– cadastral identification of parcels and their classification;

– entry in the vineyard register, area planted and any authorisations held;

– age, condition and variety of the vines;

– the designations for which the vineyard is suitable;

– contracts, employees and cooperative membership attached to a business;

– the tax treatment of the chosen way of holding the property.