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Each 20 minutes or so, an older diesel train arrives at a spray-painted stop. Close by, a law enforcement alarm cuts through the near-constant road noise. Commuters rush by collapsing, ivy-covered garden fences as rain clouds gather.

It is maybe the last place you expect to find a well-established grape-growing plot. But James Bayliss-Smith has cultivated 40 mature vines sagging with plump purplish grapes on a rambling allotment sandwiched between a line of historic homes and a local rail line just north of the city downtown.

"I've noticed people hiding illegal substances or whatever in those bushes," says the grower. "Yet you just get on with it ... and continue caring for your grapevines."

The cameraman, 46, a documentary cameraman who runs a kombucha drinks business, is not the only urban winemaker. He has organized a loose collective of growers who make wine from several discreet city grape gardens tucked away in private yards and community plots throughout Bristol. It is too clandestine to possess an formal title yet, but the collective's WhatsApp group is called Grape Expectations.

Urban Wine Gardens Around the World

To date, Bayliss-Smith's allotment is the only one registered in the Urban Vineyards Association's upcoming world atlas, which includes better-known city vineyards such as the 1,800 vines on the hillsides of Paris's historic artistic district neighbourhood and more than 3,000 vines overlooking and within the Italian city. The Italian-based non-profit association is at the forefront of a initiative reviving urban grape cultivation in historic wine-producing nations, but has discovered them throughout the globe, including urban centers in East Asia, Bangladesh and Uzbekistan.

"Vineyards assist urban areas stay more eco-friendly and more diverse. These spaces preserve open space from development by creating long-term, yielding farming plots inside cities," says the organization's leader.

Like all wines, those created in urban areas are a result of the earth the vines thrive in, the unpredictability of the weather and the people who tend the fruit. "A bottle of wine represents the charm, community, landscape and heritage of a urban center," adds the spokesperson.

Mystery Polish Grapes

Returning to Bristol, the grower is in a urgent timeline to harvest the grapevines he grew from a cutting abandoned in his garden by a Eastern European household. If the rain comes, then the birds may take advantage to attack again. "This is the mystery Eastern European variety," he says, as he cleans damaged and rotten berries from the glistering clusters. "The variety remains uncertain their exact classification, but they're definitely disease-resistant. Unlike noble varieties – Burgundy grapes, Chardonnay and additional renowned French grapes – you don't have to spray them with pesticides ... this is possibly a special variety that was developed by the Soviets."

Collective Efforts Across Bristol

The other members of the collective are additionally making the most of sunny interludes between showers of autumn rain. On the terrace with views of Bristol's shimmering waterfront, where medieval merchant vessels once bobbed with barrels of vintage from France and Spain, Katy Grant is collecting her rondo grapes from about fifty vines. "I love the aroma of the grapevines. It is so reminiscent," she says, pausing with a container of fruit slung over her arm. "It's the scent of Provence when you roll down the vehicle windows on vacation."

Grant, 52, who has spent over two decades working for humanitarian organizations in conflict zones, unexpectedly took over the grape garden when she moved back to the United Kingdom from Kenya with her household in recent years. She felt an overwhelming duty to maintain the vines in the garden of their recently acquired property. "This vineyard has previously endured three different owners," she says. "I really like the concept of environmental care – of handing this down to someone else so they continue producing from the soil."

Sloping Vineyards and Traditional Winemaking

A short walk away, the final two members of the group are busily laboring on the steep inclines of the local river valley. One filmmaker has cultivated more than 150 plants situated on terraces in her expansive property, which descends towards the muddy River Avon. "People are always surprised," she says, indicating the tangled vineyard. "They can't believe they are viewing grapevine lines in a urban neighborhood."

Today, Scofield, sixty, is picking clusters of dusty purple Rondo grapes from rows of vines arranged along the cliff-side with the help of her daughter, her family member. The conservationist, a documentary producer who has worked on Netflix's nature programming and television network's Gardeners' World, was inspired to plant grapes after observing her neighbour's vines. She has learned that hobbyists can produce interesting, pleasurable natural wine, which can sell for more than seven pounds a serving in the growing number of wine bars focusing on low-processing vintages. "It's just deeply rewarding that you can actually make quality, natural wine," she says. "It's very on trend, but really it's reviving an old way of producing wine."

"When I tread the fruit, the various natural microorganisms come off the surfaces and enter the liquid," explains the winemaker, partially submerged in a container of tiny stems, pips and red liquid. "That's how wines were historically produced, but commercial producers add sulphur [dioxide] to kill the natural cultures and subsequently incorporate a lab-grown yeast."

Challenging Conditions and Inventive Solutions

In the immediate vicinity active senior Bob Reeve, who motivated Scofield to establish her vines, has assembled his friends to harvest white wine varieties from the 100 plants he has laid out neatly across two terraces. Reeve, a northern English PE teacher who taught at Bristol University cultivated an interest in viticulture on regular visits to Europe. But it is a difficult task to grow this particular variety in the dampness of the gorge, with cooling tides moving through from the nearby estuary. "I aimed to make Burgundian wines here, which is a bit bonkers," admits the retiree with amusement. "Chardonnay is slow-maturing and very sensitive to fungal infections."

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

The unpredictable local weather is not the only challenge faced by grape cultivators. The gardener has been compelled to erect a fence on