London’s Urban Wineries Show Us How Production Can Evolve
By Erin Duxbury — April 2024
Enter the urban winery. Often tucked away in old industrial buildings, these independent manufacturers push the boundaries of the wine world, sourcing grapes from numerous nearby vineyards to produce new blends, drawing on the best of multiple crops. Employing the same processes traditional wineries do, urban wineries produce wine on a smaller scale, allowing for greater control in the fermentation process and resulting in better quality wine (at least that’s the plan).
For London Cru, London’s first urban winery, established back in 2013, their sustainable practices minimize carbon emissions by keeping the production as local as possible. They celebrated their 10th anniversary by purchasing Foxhole Vineyard in West Sussex just an hour and a half from their base in Fulham, for example. Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, and Bacchus have been well-established on the winery’s Foxhole vineyard since 2008/9 giving London Cru their ‘perfect mix’ of grape varietals. Owning the vineyard also allows them to enforce better sustainable practices involved in the growing of their crop such as minimal use of pesticides and increasing the biodiversity of the vineyard to create a better habitat.
More recently, their 2020 collaboration with Californian winemaker Sashi Moorman resulted in the creation of LDN CALI CRU, a pinot made from Californian grapes with a pure expression of the Californian climate. This provides a perfect reference point to London Cru’s own Pinot exemplifying the distinct differences climate unlocks in wine production.
Working with British grapes has also informed Black Book’s practice. The winery, found in London’s verdant Battersea district, focuses especially on cool-climate pinot noir and chardonnay. Unlike traditional methods of production, Black Book employs indigenous yeast for their fermentation process, and where possible, low to zero sulfur use. Sourcing their grapes from East Anglia and Oxfordshire and working with growers from their inaugural crops help to lower Black Book’s minimal emissions.
Black Book offers vegan wines, free from natural additives such as gelatine or fish bones that other winemakers add to accelerate the process of creating a finished wine. Due to their independence and ability to create small-batch products, Black Book can afford to spend more on labor-intensive processes to directly cater to their urban crowd, cultivating a loyal following both on and offline.
For some urban wineries, accessibility to great wine is what spurred the move to the inner city. Vagabond Wines was established in Fulham as a wine bar in 2010 but soon developed to become a producer, moving production into Battersea in 2017. Sourcing all grapes from a 2-hour radius from London, Vagabond focuses on minimal intervention, relying on traditional techniques in a non-traditional setting. Fermenting their wines in barrels and harvesting by hand helps to reduce Vagabond wine’s environmental impact. In 2022 the winery was awarded the Sustainable Wines of Great Britain Trademark in recognition of their work to reduce and minimize the environmental impact of winemaking.
This award was given in recognition for the conservation work Vagabond undertook in choosing vineyards with minimal impact, focusing on soil renewal and minimizing non-renewable energy consumption. Their wine bars in London feature the same sustainable approach, even allowing customers to access specialized self-pour wine machines. From crisp whites, elegant reds and skin-contact wines, Vagabond has proven that urban wineries can rival even the biggest producers in terms of range.
Northwest London-based Renegade Wines, founded in 2016 by Warwick Smith, employs ancient and modern techniques in their process, focusing on innovative blends using grapes sourced from the UK and Europe. Political factors such as Brexit have impacted Renegade’s supply line leading them to explore other alternatives - in 2023 they sourced all their grapes from British growers, diverging from their past 30%.
Divorcing the winery from the traditional approach makes it much easier to produce. Artisanal wines in small batch productions are an interesting development for the industry, but small urban wineries aren’t the only ones who need to consider sustainable practices. Creating industry-wide change to move away from traditional glass bottles to sustainable materials, for example, agricultural innovations, and reinventing methods of selling wine could be the way forward.
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