68 LEXPERT MAGAZINE
|
APRIL 2016
PHOTO:
SHUTTERSTOCK
WINE
LOCATION: Vienna, Austria
VINEYARDS: in the suburb of Grinzing
WHEN YOU CONJURE images of wine country in your mind's
eye you are, no doubt, transported to pastoral settings — probably
to remote valleys like Napa or the Douro. But such is the primal urge
to grow wine that you'll find vineyards in urban settings around the
world. Last year I saw a row of vines that had been planted in the
median of an East Vancouver suburban street. Here follows a city
guide to urban vineyards in the unlikeliest of settings.
BERLIN: In Humboldthain Park on the top of a tobogganing hill is
a tiny vineyard that produces an annual harvest of some 200 bottles
of sparkling wine. ey aren't for sale but are given away on special
occasions. ere are also two small vineyards on the southern slope
of the Kreuzberg hill, where since the 1960s they've been producing
about 600 bottles of a wine called Kreuz-Neroberger.
LONDON: In the north London district of Enfield is a new organic
vineyard at Forty Hall Farm planted mainly to Chardonnay, Pinot
Noir and Pinot Meunier, the classic varieties for Champagne. In
total there are 7,000 vines, including Ortega and Bacchus.
LOS ANGELES: In the Echo Park area, Heather and Joe
D'Augustine grow Syrah. ey harvest about 500 pounds of grapes
"in a good year," from which they produce a red and a rosé. e big-
gest threats to D'Augustine Vineyard are drought and forest fires.
ey don't sell their wines
as they need to be licensed
and bonded.
NEW YORK: Believe it or
not, there's a 47-acre farm
in eastern Q ueens, 1.5
acres of which are dedicat-
ed to Chardonnay, Caber-
net Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Q ueens County Farm
Museum Winery first produced a Cabernet Franc blend in 2006.
PARIS: In Montmartre near Sacré Coeur is a vineyard of Gamay
and Pinot Noir grapes measuring just over one-third of an acre. On
this hill the Romans built a temple dedicated to Bacchus, the god
of wine; and there has been wine production here since the 12th
century, when the Benedictines built an abbey (subsequently de-
stroyed during the French Revolution). e vines were killed off by
phylloxera in the early 20th century and the land lay fallow until
1933 when a group of local artists petitioned the government to al-
low them to replant the vineyard. It now produces 1,500 half-litre
bottles of red blend called Cuvée Les Trois Baudets.
Local artists design the labels and the bottles are auctioned off
for children's charities at 45 euros a pop. You can't actually visit
| DETOURS |
Urban Vintage
That abandoned plot outside the city may be the perfect spot to plant a vineyard
