The Shard looms large to the south, the grey tower blocks of a council estate dominate the western horizon, and on the eastern edge of the field, two boys in hoodies scamper off, furtively. It is an achingly cold winter day in Enfield, virtually the last time or place you would expect to find volunteers pruning vines whose grapes will end up in homes and high-end restaurants in London in the first bottles of organic wine grown in the capital since the middle ages.
This autumn, the Forty Hall community vineyard hopes to reap its first crop of chardonnay, ortega, pinot meunier and pinot noir grapes for its debut white and sparkling wines. And there is plenty of work to be done: this month the shoots of 7,000 vines must be pruned by hand before being tied to the wires strung across the south-facing field.
“You certainly get funny looks when you say you’re working in a vineyard in Enfield,” says Sheila Barford, one of 50 volunteers whose hard labour has got this social enterprise going as the only commercial vineyard inside the M25.
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