The Urban Vineyards Association (UVA) was born with the aim of protecting the rural, historical and natural heritage represented by urban vineyards and enhancing it from a cultural and tourist point of view, making it productive for the community and for the future while respecting the environment.
Through wine, and social policies of integration and sustainability.
A Vineyard is not just a gentle hilly landscape. Vineyard can also mean city-life: the unexpected green in the concrete jungle; the colors of tradition and earth, which transforms the boundaries of the city into a new horizon.
These are urban vineyards, unique crops within a metropolitan area. An agricultural, historical and cultural heritage of enormous value, the vines grown within the cities are often real treasures of biodiversity: the most ancient varieties, in some cases very rare biotypes in the ampelographic panorama of a region, have been propagated through the ages, surviving other, more productive or profitable types.
That is why an association was born to bring the Urban Vineyards together in an international network, which can promote historical recovery projects and cultural, landscape and tourist enhancement actions.
The tradition of the earth suddenly emerging from the futurism of the city.
Grapes for the sake of grapes. And grapes for the sake of the city, in fact metropolitan vineyards also reveal to be an eco-management tool, which contributes to urban sustainability.
Do more with less. A simple but significant contribution to the city, like wine is for the table.
Our Team
Nicola Purrello
Our story begins in 1790 with the foundation in San Gregorio di Catania of a vineyard ith cellar, by one of our ancestors. After more than 200 years, 8 cousins decide to resume our family tradition, replanting rooted cuttings of Nerello Mascalese, Nerello Cappuccio and Carricante. Our district, historically one of the most rich in vineyards on on Etna’s slopes, has in the meantime been reached and surrounded by the growing city of Catania, and nevertheless it preserved a rich historical and anthropological heritage, highly representative of historical viticulture on Etna.
Thus was born Etna Urban Winery.
Luca Balbiano
The vineyard of Villa della Regina is a story of love and beauty. The Queen’s Vineyard is in fact a little miracle, not only for the astonishing beauty it offers, but also because the vineyards, although so young, produce remarkable wines. When we accepted this challenge almost 15 years ago, we never imagined we could go this far.\ My family has been producing Freisa di Chieri for over 75 years, but this is a particulary special wine, born from a historic, long time lost vineyard. We agreed to replant it in order to return its grapes and wine to Turin.
Louis Buzançais
The Association Compagnons des Côtes du Rhône brings together about fifty passionate volunteers who are committed to supporting the promotion of wines from the Côtes du Rhône and its capital Avignon, through cultural, environmental and historical heritage. To achieve this goal, the Compagnons des Côtes du Rhône are creators of popular, festive and media driven events based on the values of sharing, conviviality and cultural exchange.
Paolo Corbini
“Our recovery model can be replicated in any city where there are wine productions and ancient vines to be rediscovered. Italy is very rich in this heritage and today it represents a new added value for our oenology.”
Alessandro Cotroneo
A forgotten story links Leonardo da Vinci to the city of Milan: the story of a vineyard. The vineyard that Ludovico il Moro, Duke of Milan, gave to Leonardo in 1498, and which is finally reborn today, respecting the original grape variety.
Renzo De Antonia
“The goal of Laguna nel bicchiere (Lagoon in a glass) is to recover old traditions, save pieces of land, but above to cooperate with schools, to make it clear that a city like Venice is not only a matter of stones, but there are also agricultural important agricultural productions.”
Luigi Alberto Fumi Cambi Gado
Gorgottesco, Tenerone, Salamanna, Prugnolo gentile, Occhio di pernice, Procanico, Rossone, these are some of the oldest vines that the city of Siena has rediscovered thanks to Senarum Vinea: the historic vineyards of Siena. The project has brought back to the light our wine heritage and historical forms of cultivation in the walled city.
Fabrizio Galliati
Piedmontese businessman that joined Coldiretti in 1994 as a component of Youth Agricultural Movement. Since 2015 hold the office of president for Coldiretti Torino, and he ruled that the challenges of the future will be focused on the ability to value and differentiate Piedmont products, to allow at all farms to produce top quality product, safeguarding the nature for the benefit of society as a whole.
Alessandro Marzotto
“The Santa Margherita company has decided to devote itself with passion to the protection of the oldest vineyard in Venice, putting its technical competence at the service of the friars who have kept it for centuries.”
Antonio Rallo
“The decision to join the Urban Vineyards Association is a natural step in the path of the Sicilian Doc consortium, which aims at safeguarding the great viticultural heritage of the island also through the enhancement and protection of native vines.”
Devin Shomaker
Devin came from an entrepreneurial background before establishing Rooftop Reds while a viticulture student. After graduating from George Mason University with a marketing degree, Devin’s employment focused on business development, sales management and event coordination. After returning from a successful stint in China, Devin assisted several startups in Washington, DC, leading their sales production and business relation efforts. Then he enrolled in Finger Lakes Community College’s Viticulture and Wine Technology program in The Finger Lakes region of Western New York State. Being exposed to all sides of the wine industry inspired Devin to form Rooftop Reds, which officially opened to the public in April 2016 in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Eric Sureau
“Clos Montmartre is a miracle: the vineyard is a very small piece of land squeezed between the buildings, under the wing of the church of the Sacred Heart, yet it produces about a thousand half-liter bottles of rosé. But above all it attracts thousands of people for the harvest festival. Having vineyards in the city and creating shared synergies is essential to resist and activate a winning commercial strategy, both from a cultural and social point of view: all the proceeds of Clos Montmartre, for example, are used to carry out social actions in the 18th arrondissement.”
Gérard Truchet
La République defends the traditions of Lyon and in particular of Croix-Rousse, a plateau that hosts our vineyards in the Parc de la Cerisaie. The annual festival of La République, with its parade and the gathering that are held on this occasion, have become a real tradition of Croix-Rousse and the whole territory.
