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Instead, the 34-year-old entrepreneur sees a rooftop in New York
City’s post-industrial Brooklyn Navy Yard as the perfect place
for a vineyard.
“There is zero disease pressure here,” Shomaker said, gesturing
to row after row of vines in individual planter boxes, laden
with not-yet-ripe grapes. “The constant swirling airflows reduce
pressure from fungus. And we have exposure for days.”
As the founder of Rooftop Reds, one of the world's first
commercially viable rooftop vineyards, Shomaker joins a growing
number of small business owners that aim to meet rising demand
for locally sourced products.
Urban agriculture is booming in New York City and other U.S.
metropolitan areas. At least seven commercial urban farms now
operate in the city. Many utilize rooftops in an area where
ground space is scarce.
“People want to know how their food is produced,” said David
Falchek, executive director of the American Wine Society, a
consumer group. “The more you can tell people about the products
they’re buying and the closer they are to home, the better.”
Other New Yorkers have set out to make wines for their own use
from grapes grown on rooftops, but Rooftop Reds is paving the
way for selling such wines to the public in the United States.
Other commercial urban vineyards are popping up in places like
Mexico City, where the Vinícola Urbana winery released its first
roof-grown vintage last year.
Shomaker’s rooftop grapes will not produce their first barrel of
wine until 2019. Until then, Rooftop Reds is offering wines made
from its grapes grown in upstate New York as well as reserves
from other labels.
It expects its first batch, about 300 bottles of its signature
red blend, to come out next year. That vintage may be beyond the
means of New Yorkers on a budget, as Shomaker said he’s planning
on selling them for $1,000 each.
“It’s the first of its kind – we’re really pushing the envelope
here,” Shomaker said in justifying the price. “It’s a
collector’s item. And if no one wants to buy it, I’ll drink it
myself.”
Rooftop Reds’ 15,000-square-foot space, which opened to the
public in 2016, features hammocks, picnic tables and lounge
chairs spread out among 42 rows of Bordeaux red grape vines.
Visitors can sample wines from the Finger Lakes region in the
vineyard’s on-site tasting room, play cornhole on the lawn or
admire the view of the Empire State Building to the west.
The winery also holds weekly events like movie nights and yoga
sessions, which Shomaker says sell out regularly.
Shomaker designed the space, atop a four-story brick building,
to help New Yorkers reduce stress without having to leave the
city. He hopes to make it easier for city residents to visit a
vineyard, something that normally would require a day trip to
Long Island or upstate New York.
“You can take public transit to reach us very easily,” Shomaker
said. “I want to expose people to the agricultural side of the
wine industry and get people excited about urban agriculture.”
Rooftop farming can also help with “beautifying and greening”
the city, Shomaker added. The presence of plants purifies the
air, and producing wines locally creates a lower carbon
footprint than importing them from Europe or elsewhere.
What he expects will draw the most interest in Rooftop Reds,
however, is the taste.
"There will always be people who are skeptical,” Shomaker said.
“But the proof is in the fruit.”
(Editing by Frank McGurty; Editing by David Gregorio)
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