The First and Only Vineyard

in Lewisham, South East London

Organic Hand Made Wines of Lewisham

The Birth of the Urban Vineyard

As lovers of English Wine, for some time we have haboured ambitions to establish a grand vineyard in Kent. We still have such ambitions (see the link below), but we thought we’d better learn how to walk before we ran. So we decided to set up a small vineyard just near our house, right in the heart of the borough of Lewisham, London.

It measures just 0.01hectares and is based on the St Mildred’s Road Allotments, just off the South Circular in SE12. As with all things wine, we thought we’d give our venture quite a grand sounding name. As Andrea (Mrs Olding the younger) was born within the sound of Bow Bells, we felt an East End feel appropriate and so with tongue in cheek, called ourselves Olding Manor.

When we started out, Olding Manor originally produced vintages using imported grape juice,

sourced from as far a field as France, Spain, California and Australia. But then in 2007 saw the first run of bottles made entirely from scratch, with grapes kindly donated from a nearby grower.

With the establishment of our own vineyard, 2009 saw the first home grown organic hand made Olding Manor vintage, with a full run of Estate produced wine, from three hybrid varietals imported from Germany. Two whites (Phoenix and Orion) and a red (Regent). No chemicals are used in the growing of the grapes, and everything is done by hand (and foot).

2011 saw the vineyard reaching full production, producing around 120 bottles.

Olding Manor is currently looking for land in Kent to expand into full commercial production. If you are interested in owning a small piece of England, to wander in your own vineyard, pick your own grapes and have your own label wine, then please get in touch.

Recent NEWS

8 year old Huw Olding completed his debut documentary film

about how we make our Regent red wine at OldingManor

Huw’s film is shortlisted for the under 15 category for

Cinemagic Young Filmmaker award held in Belfast in December 2011

Huw’s film currently shortlisted for the Young Filmmaker’s Competition

at the Lancaster Children’s Film Festival

Our Movie Production company Bongo Reef Pictures shot its 2009 HiDef short film down on the allotments. It’s called ‘Losing the Plot’ and stars Dudley Sutton and is now being submitted to film festivals around the world.

Recent ACTIVITIES

Wine making Vintage 2011

Winter Pruning 2012

The Story So Far…

2007-2012

In the News

Appeared in Greenwich Meridian magazine (2010)

OldingManor in the NewsShopper (2010)

Blog

Books

Making Wine

English Wine

Links

CONTACT

OldingManor Cooperative

If you are interested in being a part of the new wave of English Wine and dream of owning and working your own vineyard in Kent, we’d like to hear from you. We are actively looking for like minded individuals and families to form a cooperative to establish a 2 hectare vineyard in the Garden of England. If you are a land owner with land available on a long term lease, we’d also like to hear from you. Full details HERE.

PS We’d love to have a cellar like this…