Chateau Denmark Hill: "We're hoping for 22 bottles this year, but we're not allowed to sell it."

Following yesterday’s news that south London train station Denmark Hill is producing its first vintage of Bacchus, Sarah Neish speaks to the project’s winemakers about staying on track and not going loco in the British heatwave.

As db reported yesterday, the UK’s first railway station wine is well underway with the inaugural vintage from ‘Chateau Denmark Hill’ expected to be ready to drink next year. We caught up Nick Mair, co-winemaker for the south London project alongside Tony Coleman, to find out the triumphs and tribulations of growing vines just metres away from the train tracks.

According to Nair, vibrations from trains passing at speed are “not an issue”.

“The vineyard is well above the tracks,” he said. “Had it been at the same level we would have been more worried. The vines appear to be flourishing and rose bushes at the ends of each row bloom prodigiously. Plus, the prevailing wind is south westerly which then tends to run east along the tracks.”

Intriguingly, neither Mair, nor Coleman, have had a career in wine, “though we are keen wine drinkers”, Mair tells db. Rather, Coleman works in construction while Mair is a French and Spanish language teacher. The combination has proved to be a winning formula.

“I tend to have ideas but Tony has the perseverance and construction background, without which the vineyard wouldn’t have happened,” said Mair.

That vineyard comprises 30 vines of aromatic white grape variety Bacchus, located within Denmark Hill train station’s grounds in Camberwell. After Network Rail granted a special Community License to the Camberwell Society, of which Mair and Coleman are members, efforts were made to “clean up” the station and surrounding area. In Mair’s words, the station “was one of the dodgier parts of Camberwell – a reputation we wanted to change. It was strewn with litter and we wanted to make it somewhere special.”

Along with installing various artworks and gardening projects, including a mini lavender farm, the Bacchus vines were planted as a way of helping the local community and commuters to”engage more positively with the station,” said Nair.

Forgiving variety

Bacchus was chosen by the novice winegrowers because Nair and Coleman, running point on the project, had noted that the variety was “successfully widely grown in South East England”, and perhaps most importantly, is “forgiving for beginners!”

However, before leaping straight in, the pair started off with another crop entirely.

“I planted sunflowers in 2022 just to check [the soil’s viability],” said Nair. “The horizon is very low and the vineyard is due south. We also checked soil records with Network Rail. Encouraged by a bumper sunflower crop, we removed bindweed in the autumn of 2023, terraced the ground and then augured in vertical posts, which was very hard work as we had no electricity or mechanical agricultural equipment.”

Thankfully, this is where Coleman’s background in construction came into its own, meaning “we were able to make accurate plans to ensure an appropriate build, dig and structure” for the vineyard site.

It hasn’t all been sunshine and roses (or indeed sunflowers), with manpower a continual issue, especially for tending the vines. At the start, Nair said, “we asked for volunteers who were prepared to help with the hard labour — we were honest about the scale of the project — and plenty wanted to dig in the vines, but nothing else.”

New skills

And while the team was short on professional winemaking experience, Nair had plenty of travel to winemaking regions under his belt, where he had picked up a thing or two.

“As a French and Spanish teacher, I have spent some years in those countries,” he said, adding that “part of the A-level syllabus also used to allow for the study of a region – and 15 years of school trips to Jerez, including research interviews” not only helped him to “appreciate a good fino Sherry” but also to learn about the making and bottling of wines. He also spent a year in Cahors in the south of France, and time in the Alpes-Maritimes.

Meanwhile, Coleman embarked on a vine-tending course at The Mount Vineyard in Shoreham, Kent, where he made the call to prune the Denmark Hill vines using the double Guyot method.

According to Nair, “2026 will be the station’s first proper harvest and the grapes are looking good – though a little rain at some stage would be helpful!” He of course refers to the unprecedented British summer heatwave, where the temperature has scarcely dipped below 30°C for months.

Regarding the expected yield he revealed that the pair have pruned back to “something like nine bunches per vine” and given that the pair are beginners “we would be happy with 22 bottles in a first year – so a bottle per vine.”

Not for sale

As the Camberwell Society “has an understanding with Network Rail that we will not sell any wine,” interested parties will sadly not be able to purchase a bottle of Chateau Denmark Hill. At least for the timebeing.

“It’s really a passion project,” said Nair, who has received advice, support and encouragement from various parties. “We have found it to be a very welcoming community, from growers to Masters of Wines, and independent local wine shops.”

“Given the excellence of English winemaking we are clearly enthusiasts rather than experienced viticulturists,” he said. “Sip it and see will be our approach!”

Chateau Denmark Hill: “We’re hoping for 22 bottles this year, but we’re not allowed to sell it.”

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