'Every London borough is represented in this wine'

""This year, 2025, we had a really good year. Because cities are getting warmer, we are seeing more grapes," Mr Sharp said. "Generally, a warmer climate means that we are getting more grapes in the city," he said. "But there have been some years where it's almost too hot. "We're seeing more people contacting us where there seems to be a greater volume of grapes in this brilliant city.""

""It brings different grapes. Some of our members know what the grapes are, some don't. They all get mixed together and then that wine goes back to our members. "It's a good use of local food for local use. The outcome is a still and a sparkling rose for members, a sparkling white, and a red. "Our pink fizz is our popular one, and that's the one that has all of our city grapes in it.""

""They come down on bikes, they come down on the Tube, they get the bus, they walk. "At harvest time we have this beautiful chaos that's created and at the end we get our wine - a London wine. "If we were to mark the bottle you would see grapes from Lambeth, from Wandsworth, from Chiswick, from Tower Hamlets, from Southwark. "You can keep going anywhere in London, every borough has the grapes in that wine.""

Richard Sharp co-founded the Urban Wine Company in 2009 after a trip to France to combine grapes grown in London gardens and allotments. Members harvest fruit each September and send it to a commercial winery for expert winemaking. The project produces a still wine, sparkling rosé, a sparkling white, and a red, with the pink fizz containing grapes from across the city. Warmer urban temperatures have increased grape yields and interest. All grapes are mixed democratically regardless of variety, returned to contributors, and the harvest involves members arriving by bike, Tube, bus, and on foot.

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