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Each quarter of an hour or so, an older diesel railway carriage pulls into a spray-painted station. Nearby, a law enforcement alarm cuts through the near-constant traffic drone. Daily travelers rush by falling apart, ivy-draped fencing panels as storm clouds form.

This is maybe the least likely spot you expect to find a well-established grape-growing plot. But one local grower has managed to four dozen established plants heavy with plump mauve grapes on a rambling allotment sandwiched between a row of 1930s houses and a local rail line just north of Bristol downtown.

"I've seen individuals hiding illegal substances or whatever in the shrubbery," says the grower. "But you simply continue ... and keep tending to your grapevines."

The cameraman, forty-six, a documentary cameraman who runs a kombucha drinks business, is not the only urban winemaker. He has organized a informal group of growers who make vintage from four discreet city grape gardens tucked away in back gardens and allotments throughout Bristol. The project is too clandestine to possess an official name so far, but the collective's WhatsApp group is called Grape Expectations.

City Wine Gardens Across the Globe

So far, the grower's plot is the sole location listed in the Urban Vineyards Association's forthcoming global directory, which features better-known city vineyards such as the 1,800 vines on the hillsides of the French capital's historic Montmartre area and more than three thousand vines with views of and inside Turin. Based in Italy charitable organization is at the forefront of a movement re-establishing urban grape cultivation in traditional winemaking nations, but has identified them all over the globe, including cities in East Asia, Bangladesh and Central Asia.

"Vineyards assist urban areas remain greener and more diverse. They preserve open space from development by creating permanent, productive farming plots inside cities," explains the association's president.

Similar to other vintages, those created in urban areas are a result of the earth the plants thrive in, the vagaries of the weather and the people who tend the grapes. "Each vintage embodies the charm, local spirit, landscape and history of a urban center," adds the president.

Unknown Eastern European Grapes

Returning to the city, Bayliss-Smith is in a race against time to harvest the vines he cultivated from a plant left in his garden by a Polish family. Should the rain comes, then the pigeons may take advantage to attack again. "Here we have the enigmatic Eastern European grape," he comments, as he removes damaged and mouldy berries from the shimmering bunches. "We don't really know what variety they are, but they're definitely disease-resistant. In contrast to premium grapes – Burgundy grapes, white wine grapes and additional renowned French grapes – you don't have to treat them with chemicals ... this could be a unique cultivar that was bred by the Eastern Bloc."

Group Efforts Across Bristol

Additional participants of the group are additionally taking advantage of sunny interludes between showers of fall precipitation. At a rooftop garden overlooking the city's shimmering harbour, where medieval merchant vessels once bobbed with barrels of vintage from Europe and Spain, one cultivator is harvesting her dark berries from approximately 50 vines. "I adore the smell of the grapevines. It is so evocative," she remarks, pausing with a container of grapes resting on her arm. "It's the scent of Provence when you roll down the vehicle windows on holiday."

The humanitarian worker, 52, who has spent over 20 years working for humanitarian organizations in war-torn regions, unexpectedly took over the grape garden when she returned to the United Kingdom from Kenya with her household in recent years. She experienced an overwhelming duty to maintain the grapevines in the garden of their new home. "This vineyard has already survived multiple proprietors," she explains. "I deeply appreciate the concept of natural stewardship – of passing this on to future caretakers so they continue producing from this land."

Sloping Vineyards and Natural Production

A short walk away, the final two members of the group are hard at work on the steep inclines of the local river valley. Jo Scofield has established over 150 plants situated on ledges in her expansive property, which tumbles down towards the silty River Avon. "People are always surprised," she says, indicating the tangled vineyard. "It's astonishing to them they are viewing rows of vines in a urban neighborhood."

Currently, Scofield, 60, is picking bunches of deep violet dark berries from rows of plants slung across the hillside with the assistance of her child, Luca. Scofield, a wildlife and conservation film-maker who has worked on streaming service's nature programming and television network's gardening shows, was inspired to cultivate vines after seeing her neighbor's vines. She's discovered that hobbyists can produce intriguing, pleasurable traditional vintage, which can sell for upwards of £7 a serving in the increasing quantity of establishments specialising in minimal-intervention vintages. "It's just incredibly satisfying that you can actually create quality, traditional vintage," she says. "It's very fashionable, but really it's reviving an traditional method of making wine."

"When I tread the grapes, all the wild yeasts come off the surfaces into the juice," says the winemaker, partially submerged in a bucket of tiny stems, pips and crimson juice. "This represents how wines were made traditionally, but commercial producers add preservatives to eliminate the wild yeast and subsequently add a commercially produced yeast."

Difficult Conditions and Creative Solutions

In the immediate vicinity sprightly retiree another cultivator, who motivated his neighbor to establish her grapevines, has gathered his companions to harvest Chardonnay grapes from the 100 vines he has laid out neatly across two terraces. The former teacher, a Lancashire-born physical education instructor who taught at the local university developed a passion for wine on annual sporting trips to Europe. However it is a difficult task to grow Chardonnay grapes in the humidity of the valley, with cooling tides moving through from the Bristol Channel. "I aimed to make French-style vintages here, which is a bit bonkers," says the retiree with amusement. "Chardonnay is late to ripen and particularly vulnerable to mildew."

"I wanted to make Burgundian wines in this environment, which is a bit bonkers"

The unpredictable Bristol climate is not the sole problem encountered by grape cultivators. The gardener has been compelled to erect a barrier on