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Each quarter of an hour or so, an ageing diesel railway carriage pulls into a graffiti-covered station. Close by, a police siren cuts through the almost continuous road noise. Commuters rush by falling apart, ivy-covered garden fences as storm clouds gather.

This is perhaps the last place you anticipate to find a well-established vineyard. However one local grower has cultivated 40 mature vines heavy with plump mauve grapes on a rambling garden plot sandwiched between a line of historic homes and a local rail line just north of the city downtown.

"I've seen individuals concealing illegal substances or whatever in those bushes," states Bayliss-Smith. "Yet you just get on with it ... and keep tending to your vines."

Bayliss-Smith, 46, a filmmaker who runs a kombucha drinks business, is among several urban winemaker. He has pulled together a informal group of cultivators who make vintage from four discreet urban vineyards tucked away in back gardens and allotments throughout the city. It is too clandestine to possess an official name yet, but the group's messaging chat is called Vineyard Dreams.

Urban Vineyards Across the Globe

To date, Bayliss-Smith's plot is the sole location registered in the City Vineyard Network's upcoming world atlas, which includes more famous urban wineries such as the eighteen hundred vines on the hillsides of Paris's renowned artistic district neighbourhood and more than three thousand vines with views of and inside Turin. Based in Italy charitable organization is at the forefront of a initiative reviving city vineyards in historic wine-producing countries, but has identified them throughout the world, including urban centers in East Asia, South Asia and Uzbekistan.

"Vineyards assist urban areas remain greener and ecologically varied. These spaces protect open space from development by establishing permanent, productive agricultural units inside cities," explains the association's president.

Like all wines, those created in cities are a product of the soils the plants thrive in, the unpredictability of the weather and the individuals who tend the grapes. "A bottle of wine embodies the charm, community, environment and heritage of a city," notes the president.

Mystery Polish Variety

Back in the city, the grower is in a race against time to harvest the grapevines he grew from a cutting abandoned in his allotment by a Eastern European household. Should the precipitation 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 rotten grapes from the shimmering bunches. "The variety remains uncertain what variety they are, but they're definitely hardy. Unlike premium grapes – Burgundy grapes, white wine grapes and other famous French grapes – you don't have to spray them with chemicals ... this is possibly a unique cultivar that was bred by the Eastern Bloc."

Collective Efforts Throughout Bristol

The other members of the collective are also taking advantage of bright periods between bursts of fall precipitation. On the terrace with views of the city's glistening waterfront, where historic trading ships once floated with casks of wine from Europe and the Iberian peninsula, one cultivator is harvesting her dark berries from about 50 plants. "I love the aroma of these vines. It is so reminiscent," she says, stopping with a container of grapes resting on her arm. "It's the scent of Provence when you open the car windows on holiday."

The humanitarian worker, fifty-two, who has spent over 20 years working for humanitarian organizations in war-torn regions, unexpectedly took over the grape garden when she moved back to the United Kingdom from East Africa with her family in recent years. She experienced an strong responsibility to maintain the grapevines in the yard of their recently acquired property. "This vineyard has previously survived multiple proprietors," she explains. "I deeply appreciate the concept of natural stewardship – of handing this down to future caretakers so they keep cultivating from the soil."

Terraced Vineyards and Natural Production

Nearby, the final two members of the group are busily laboring on the precipitous slopes of the local river valley. Jo Scofield has cultivated over 150 vines perched on ledges in her wild half-acre garden, which descends towards the silty local waterway. "People are always surprised," she says, gesturing towards the interwoven vineyard. "They can't believe they are viewing grapevine lines in a city street."

Currently, the filmmaker, 60, is picking clusters of dusty purple Rondo grapes from lines of plants arranged along the cliff-side with the help of her daughter, her family member. The conservationist, a wildlife and conservation film-maker who has contributed to Netflix's nature programming and television network's gardening shows, was inspired to plant grapes after seeing her neighbor's grapevines. She has learned that hobbyists can produce intriguing, pleasurable traditional vintage, which can command prices of upwards of £7 a glass in the growing number of wine bars specialising in low-processing vintages. "It's just incredibly satisfying that you can truly create good, natural wine," she states. "It is quite on trend, but in reality it's reviving an old way of producing vintage."

"When I tread the fruit, all the wild yeasts come off the skins into the liquid," explains the winemaker, partially submerged in a bucket of tiny stems, seeds and crimson juice. "This represents how wines were historically produced, but commercial producers add preservatives to kill the natural cultures and subsequently add a commercially produced yeast."

Difficult Environments and Inventive Approaches

In the immediate vicinity active senior Bob Reeve, who inspired Scofield to plant her grapevines, has assembled his companions to harvest Chardonnay grapes from the 100 plants he has laid out neatly across two terraces. The former teacher, a Lancashire-born PE teacher who taught at Bristol University cultivated an interest in wine on annual sporting trips to France. However it is a challenge to cultivate this particular variety in the humidity of the valley, with temperature fluctuations sweeping in and out from the Bristol Channel. "I aimed to produce French-style vintages in this location, which is a bit bonkers," says the retiree with amusement. "Chardonnay is slow-maturing and particularly vulnerable to mildew."

"My goal was creating Burgundian wines in this environment, which is a bit bonkers"

The unpredictable local weather is not the sole challenge encountered by winegrowers. Reeve has been compelled to erect a fence on