Urban Wine blog

Busy weekend! Vines were collected by Alec Selvon- Bruce, a member of the urban Wine Company. The vines  have now been moved from the Urban Wine yard and  are now living happily in a small street of former cottages that were once used by workers for the old Waddon Waterworks.

Alec moved into the house in 2006 and also inherited two existing vines. In the first year they set to harvesting the grapes for home wine making, with mixed results of mildew, harvesting too early and not enough sugar for fermentation. The resulting liquid was apparently a potent yet to be defined sherry liquor! Next year they will be invested in pulping materials and more advanced wine making materials.

This year they built a pergola and trained the vines to reach out across the house with a healthy crop of grapes. Neighbours have assisted in the caring for the vines while they were away on holiday.

The ten vines gained through the Urban Wine Company have been distributed to all four cottages, some vines for use in the new pergola, and others for use in a communal’ no mans land’ that benefits from lots of sunlight.

Stay tuned for updates on the Croydon vineyard! You never know, it might be possible that some day people will be think of vineyards, rathen than Ikea, when they travel to Croydon.

Have just got back from the vineyard. The wine made from the urban growers ton of grapes collected in October this year tastes fantastic and fruity. The wine is a blush as its made from red and white grapes and is a lovely salmon colour. It  has a delicious taste that will go down really well as Spring approaches. I am delighted about the the quality of the wine thanks to the skills of the wine makers at Bolney and in particular Sam Linter. It really is joyous to think that there are parts of North, East, South and West of London in the blend and all the members will be able to celebrate their wine making success when they get their bottles of urban wine in 2010. Stay tuned for more news soon!