Italy’s 10 Most Profitable Wine Regions, Ranked by the AAWE

Alto Adige ranked as Italy’s most profitable wine region in 2024, posting €32,155 in net farm value added per hectare of vineyard, according to a ranking released by the American Association of Wine Economists using public data from the European Union’s Farm Accountancy Data Network, or FADN.

Valle d’Aosta followed at €32,043 per hectare, just €112 behind Alto Adige. The gap was the smallest between any two consecutive positions in the Italian table. On the broader European ranking, Alto Adige placed second and Valle d’Aosta third, both behind France’s Champagne-Ardenne.

The figures do not refer to land prices or the sale value of a hectare of vineyard. The measure used in the ranking is net farm value added per hectare of vineyard, an accounting indicator that starts with total output, subtracts intermediate consumption and depreciation, and then adds the balance of subsidies and taxes. It is meant to show the value available to remunerate labor, land and capital on the farm. Income from activities tied to the estate, including agritourism, may also be included in total output.

That distinction matters in a country where vineyard values, bottle prices and prestige often dominate public discussion. The AAWE ranking instead points to the operating strength of commercial farms specialized in viticulture, measured on the basis of FADN regional units rather than Italy’s better-known appellations.

Italy placed four regions in the top 10 in Europe, more than any other country in the ranking. After Alto Adige and Valle d’Aosta, Liguria was Italy’s third-strongest region at €21,177 per hectare, good for fifth place in Europe. The difference between Valle d’Aosta and Liguria was €10,866, showing a sharp drop after the two Italian leaders. Piemonte ranked fourth nationally at €18,253 per hectare and eighth in Europe.

Those four regions gave Italy a strong presence near the top of the continental list. The concentration is notable because the ranking spans wine-growing territories across the European Union, yet Alto Adige, Valle d’Aosta, Liguria and Piemonte all finished inside the first 10.

Toscana led the next group of Italian regions with €12,447 per hectare, ranking 12th in Europe. Molise came next at €12,275, only €172 lower, and Veneto followed with €11,609. In the European ranking, those three regions appeared back to back in 12th, 13th and 14th place, showing how narrow the differences were in the middle of the Italian table.

Friuli-Venezia Giulia placed eighth in Italy with €9,373 per hectare and ranked 17th in Europe. Trentino was ninth at €8,831, and Basilicata completed the Italian top 10 at €7,547. The difference between Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Trentino was €542, while the gap from Trentino to Basilicata was €1,284. From first place to 10th place in Italy, the spread reached €24,608 per hectare.

Puglia fell just outside the national top 10 with €7,058 per hectare, €489 below Basilicata. Behind Puglia came Lombardia, Emilia-Romagna, Lazio, Marche, Campania, Abruzzo, Sardegna, Umbria and Sicilia, all of them included in the European table cited by the AAWE.

The ranking underlines how uneven the economic performance of vineyard farming can be within Italy, even among regions with long wine traditions and strong export reputations. Alto Adige and Valle d’Aosta, the two Italian leaders, were separated by barely more than €100 per hectare, while the gap between the country’s first and third regions exceeded €10,000. By the time the list reached Basilicata in 10th place, the value per hectare was less than one-quarter of Alto Adige’s level.

Because the FADN framework is based on commercial farms specialized in viticulture, the results reflect the average economic performance of those holdings rather than the fortunes of individual producers. The figure also should not be read as a farmer’s final profit. It is an operating measure shaped by production, costs, depreciation, subsidies and taxes, and in some cases by related activities on the estate.

That means the ranking is best understood as a snapshot of how much value vineyard holdings generated on average per hectare in 2024, not as a direct guide to what vineyard land is worth on the market or what a winery can charge for a bottle. For Italian wine regions, it offers a different lens on competitiveness, one that places Alto Adige and Valle d’Aosta at the top nationally and just behind Champagne-Ardenne in Europe.