Inside London's Urban Wine Co: A drink with founder Richard Sharp

A drink with...Richard Sharp of Urban Wine Co

Urban regeneration specialist Richard Sharp founded community winemaking project Urban Wine Co in south London in 2009. The collective now makes a series of still and sparkling cuvées, known to locals as Château Tooting, from grapes grown in back gardens, balconies and allotments across London and the southeast of England.

From Languedoc to Tooting: How this all started

I work for Wandsworth Council. My job involves working with communities and stakeholders, building homes for social rent. I’ve been doing this for over 30 years and I think it enables me to think differently about how to organize spaces within communities and urban areas.

‘In the late 1990s, I went to the Languedoc. We were on holiday in a tiny village called Ajac, and they were doing the annual harvest. Local people were recruited to help with the vendange as well. This friendly farmer said to myself and my kids: “Come and join in, get involved.” So the kids were playing on the tractor. They were really excited and that left a lasting impression on me.

‘I got back to London and I just happened to have two vines in the garden…I thought, “Could there be an opportunity to recreate that community spirit that’s so famous in France and other parts of Europe? Could we do an annual harvest in London?” That’s how it started.

‘I managed to recruit enough people to have a small amount of grapes and I found a winery: Bolney Estate. Sam Linter was a real mentor; I’d spent days ringing round vineyards and trying to explain the concept and a lot of wineries just didn’t get it. But she really liked the idea, so it’s thanks to her that it took off.

‘The first vintage proper, which was from 100 or so households, wasn't bad. But I think over the years, it's got progressively better, particularly the fizz.'

‘Urban Wine members pre-register for the harvest – they pay a £25 flat fee – which takes place at a local church in Tooting over a weekend in September. Members pay for their wine at harvest in advance, and they patiently wait for their wine to be returned to them. I think members love the fact that they have wine made from their own gardens.

‘Members can order as much or as little wine as they wish. So it means that people with an abundance of grapes don't have to buy back their full allocation in wine, and those with less grapes can purchase more.

‘This is a beautiful part of the collective where people who bring a lot of grapes don't always want lots of wine back; this is really generous, and I think a community-based approach to winemaking that feels really inclusive and welcoming.

‘On average we have between 150 and 200 households contributing every year. At each harvest we probably receive around 1.5 up to three tons of grapes.

‘Some people are regulars, some might come for one year and they don’t come for another year, then other people are new members. So I've never kept a count, but we've had thousands of people over the years.

‘Members bring their grapes to the collection point, usually via car, sometimes on bikes, sometimes on public transport. Someone from Finsbury Park came down on the tube with a bucket of grapes. Every year – for the last 15 years – Steve Buzzard cycles down from Camden with grapes in his saddle bags. So we get weird and wonderful methods of people bringing their grapes down to the harvest.'

Making the wine

‘Some people know what varieties of grapes they have. They will say it’s a Rondo, a Sauvignon, a Solaris, a Phoenix… but many people don’t know. So one year the Royal Horticultural Society identified about 150 different vine leaves.

‘What’s always been a bit of a logistical nightmare is choosing the harvest date, as we’re dealing with 150, 200 different locations every year. So we have to put our finger in the air and say, “Well, okay, we’re going to do it the third week of September,” for instance.

‘Toby Spiers at Downsview Vineyard [in East Sussex] is our current winemaker. [After Bolney] we worked with the brilliant Hapenny Green in Staffordshire for a number of years, but there was a bit of an issue with the fact that it was 130 miles away. So we were always looking for somewhere closer and Downsview Vineyard [in East Sussex] is only 35 miles away.

‘Working with a boutique, smaller winery seems to work really well for our members. We did two visit days this year: they met Toby, did a walk in the vineyard, had some cheese and charcuterie, took a bare-rooted vine away. It also brought members together to share tips and tricks.

‘For a few years now we have also bought in English wines. There wasn't enough volume of spare uber-pink Tooting wine to sell to people, but there was an appetite for more English wine. That also provides a gateway, because people who might not have tried an English red will drink it, and then they'll then go, actually, how do we get involved with Urban Wine? So it provides a wider audience for us.'

'A real sense of community'

‘My favourite part of Urban Wine is definitely the connections I've made with some amazing people across London. I've met so many lovely people. It's definitely built that community ethos I always wanted.

‘Every time I run a farmer's market or community event, there's always old and new friends that pop up, talk to me about how they've used Urban Wine to celebrate births, baptisms, parties... It's really sweet and it’s a real privilege to know that we've created something special.

‘We do make some good wine, considering where the grapes are drawn from. It kind of turns the conventions of winemaking on its head. I think it’s a combination of the brilliance of our winemakers, but also the love and attention that many of our members give to their grapes.

‘The Urban Wine Co provides people with a real sense of community and how to celebrate together. This is part of the vision I had originally when I first experienced that harvest in France all those years ago – people who are proud of what they grow and have some sort of communal celebration through drinking wine together.’

‘A sense of place and community shaped by things that people grow, as a traditional model of neighbourhoods, is probably how London used to operate around 150 years ago. That vision that I established through Urban Wine Company, is genuinely being carried out on streets and gardens of Tooting and wider London. It's the people, it's the place and it’s the cohesion and the tangibility; but it couldn't have been any of those things without the wine tasting good.'

Try our pink fizz with Stilton

‘I've had some really good Bacchuses recently. I like that kind of citrus, nettle, cut grass. Give me a Bacchus, that's great!

‘I think our pink fizz goes really well with a good blue cheese, something like a Stilton – try it also with spicy food. And then the white fizz, just try it with some oysters, that's just going to pair really well.

‘My advice to anyone that's thinking of setting up a community wine scheme? I'd say start small, because if you make a mistake, you can repair it. And have fun – I think you've got to do it for that reason.’

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