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Brooklyn's Rooftop Vineyard Challenges the Concept of Terroir

Brooklyn’s Rooftop Vineyard Challenges the Concept of Terroir

With a superhero supply shop, knitting cafés, babyccinos and kombucha on tap, Brooklyn has done more than the bare minimum to earn the unofficial honour of being the hipster capital of the world. Now they can toast to that achievement with a glass of Rooftop Red, the world’s first commercial rooftop vineyard, which opened this spring after three years of planing.

The Brooklyn Navy Yard is not the first thing that comes to mind when envisioning a terroir that is suitable for viticulture, but as they explain on their website rooftopreds.com, they have developed a first of its kind type of urban planter system. The innovation was achieved with the help of Finger Lakes industry leaders and Cornell University. Rooftop Reds commissioned 50 state-of-the-art planters to fill their 14,800 square-foot rooftop at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. “With these in place, production of a sustainable and completely Brooklyn vintage will be possible.”

As their vines mature, the space also serves as venue to events such as rooftop yoga, “vineyard happy hours, pop-up dining experiences, wine and cheese tastings, and educational viticulture tours among others.”

They aim to be more than a novelty winery and have stated an ambitious mission of “going well beyond merely bringing viticulture to the urban agriculture industry.  Rooftop Reds will spearhead the New York State innovative wine market and plant the seeds for a new generation of viticulture enthusiasts.”

They are currently offering a wine made in collaboration with their partners Finger Lakes Vineyard, which is available in local restaurants and shops in Brooklyn, and they are expecting their first harvest from the rooftop in October this year. New York City’s first urban wine is set to be released on Autumn of 2017.

For more information visit rooftopreds.com

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