Just a quick note to say that I have been knocked out by how brilliant the folks at Sustain are in bringing together food growers across London. Well done to you guys, especially Poly and thanks for helping us out so many times.
Hopefully this weekend the 1st August will see the feature on the Urban Wine Company out out on News 24. I recently spent time with the BBC team filming in East Sussex. The feature includes an interview with me on the philosophy of urban wine, pretty straightforward really, only nice people allowed, community, no wine snobs , good fun, nice wine, hot cities good for wine, local sourcing, etc. The feature also interviews one of our lovely members in her back garden with vine and then a sample of urban wine at Tooting Broadway tube station. I can wait to see the finished product on the tv and we will upload it to this site when its released.
Back soon for more news!
Hi and sorry for not keeping updating this blog as often as I should. Anyway, just back from a run in the rain and so feeling very motivated to do some writing. I am starting to get a little nervous about the weather as its seemed to rain solidly for the last two weeks and one thing we need this year to ensure lots of good grapes is the sun.
Anyway a time to be more upbeat. The Urban Wine Company will be at the Thames Festival this year and we will be running a wine bar onSouthwarkBridge. The bridge wil be closed to traffic and a long table will be set for people to sit down on and eat, drink and be merry. Its such a great idea and I love the using a bridge in this way. I am really excited about the festival as we will be offering English wine and will bring along our grape vines which we will set up as a portable vineyard for the day. As well as buying some nice localy produced wine, people can come up and find out more about the urban wine company and can sign up on the day for membership and take away further information. They can even take a vine away with them! As well as the wine bar there will be a wine press and the ‘bridge people’ will be able to have a go at grape pressing the old fashioned way. Yes with their feet! The wine will be made into Chateau Bridge down in Sussex and photos from the day will be turned into labels for the wine as a memento of the Thames Festival.
Its going to be absolutely brilliant and if the suns out if promises to be a fun day. I will be at the bar from noon until ten o clock at night and so I would love to meet you if you read this blog come along and say hello.
See you soon and you can also check out the urban wine twitter!!!
Recently I have been working with partners on setting up more urban vineyards. Thanks to the ever helpful Polly at Sustain, she put me in contact with the very welcoming Kath at Surrey Docks Farm. Arriving at the farm which is tucked away in Rotherhithe overlooking the Thames, my trusty Urban Wine companion Janette and myself were strangely greeted by dozens of goats, pigs and cows. It was if Southwark had been taken over by our four legged friends for the day. After a refreshing cup of tea in the gift shop and cafe we felt in good shape to undertake a tour of the farm and eye up the most suitable site for planting out the urban vines. The farm has 2.5 acres of land and its remarkable that the gardens that are awash with fruit and vegetables backs onto the magical tidal water of the Thames. Its such a beautiful location it does transport you away from the urban buzz for a while.
We found a suitable and well manured plot and this will look fantastic when its planted out which we hope to undertake in the next few days. We will keep you posted on the date of the actual planting and I am sure you will be welcome to join in if you wish. Having completed a successful site visit, we then jumped on the shuttle boat at the nearby Bermondsey Hilton Hotel and took the short journey over to Canary Wharf. I was disappointed that I didnt purchase any free range meat that is for sale at the farm, but next time I go back laden down with vines, I intend to buy some free range suasages and sit down at the end of a muddy planting day to a well deserved plate of bangers and mash and a large glass of red.
Have a great summer and be back soon with more news in the life of the Urban Wine Company (UWC).