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Each 20 minutes or so, an ageing diesel-powered train arrives at a spray-painted station. Nearby, a law enforcement alarm cuts through the almost continuous traffic drone. Commuters rush by collapsing, ivy-covered garden fences as storm clouds gather.

This is perhaps the least likely spot you expect to find a well-established vineyard. However one local grower has cultivated four dozen established plants heavy with plump mauve grapes on a sprawling garden plot situated between a row of 1930s houses and a commuter railway just north of Bristol downtown.

"I've noticed individuals hiding illegal substances or whatever in the shrubbery," says Bayliss-Smith. "Yet you just get on with it ... and continue caring for your vines."

Bayliss-Smith, 46, a filmmaker who runs a kombucha drinks business, is not the only local vintner. He has pulled together a informal group of cultivators who produce vintage from four discreet urban vineyards tucked away in back gardens and allotments throughout Bristol. The project is too clandestine to possess an formal title yet, but the group's messaging chat is named Vineyard Dreams.

City Wine Gardens Around the World

So far, Bayliss-Smith's allotment is the sole location listed in the City Vineyard Network's forthcoming global directory, which features better-known city vineyards such as the 1,800 plants on the hillsides of the French capital's renowned artistic district area and more than three thousand vines with views of and within the Italian city. The Italian-based charitable organization is at the forefront of a initiative reviving city vineyards in historic wine-producing countries, but has discovered them throughout the world, including urban centers in East Asia, Bangladesh and Central Asia.

"Grape gardens assist cities stay more eco-friendly and ecologically varied. These spaces protect land from construction by creating long-term, yielding farming plots inside urban environments," says the association's president.

Like all wines, those produced in urban areas are a result of the earth the plants thrive in, the unpredictability of the climate and the people who care for the fruit. "Each vintage represents the charm, local spirit, environment and history of a city," notes the spokesperson.

Mystery Polish Variety

Returning to the city, the grower is in a race against time to gather the grapevines he cultivated from a plant abandoned in his garden by a Polish family. If the rain arrives, then the pigeons may take advantage to feast again. "Here we have the mystery Polish variety," he says, as he cleans damaged and rotten grapes from the shimmering bunches. "The variety remains uncertain their exact classification, but they're definitely hardy. In contrast to premium grapes – Burgundy grapes, Chardonnay and other famous French grapes – you don't have to treat them with pesticides ... this could be a special variety that was developed by the Eastern Bloc."

Collective Efforts Across Bristol

Additional participants of the group are also taking advantage of sunny interludes between bursts of fall precipitation. On the terrace overlooking the city's glistening harbour, where medieval merchant vessels once floated with casks of wine from Europe and Spain, Katy Grant is harvesting her dark berries from about 50 vines. "I love the smell of the grapevines. The scent is so reminiscent," she remarks, pausing with a container of grapes slung over her shoulder. "It's the scent of southern France when you open the car windows on vacation."

Grant, fifty-two, who has spent over two decades working for humanitarian organizations in conflict zones, inadvertently took over the vineyard when she moved back to the United Kingdom from Kenya with her household in recent years. She experienced an strong responsibility to look after the vines in the garden of their recently acquired property. "This vineyard has already endured multiple proprietors," she explains. "I really like the idea of environmental care – of handing this down to future caretakers so they can continue producing from this land."

Terraced Vineyards and Natural Winemaking

A short walk away, the remaining cultivators of the group are hard at work on the precipitous slopes of the local river valley. One filmmaker has established more than 150 plants situated on terraces in her wild half-acre garden, which descends towards the silty local waterway. "Visitors frequently express amazement," she says, gesturing towards the interwoven grape garden. "They can't believe they can see grapevine lines in a city street."

Currently, the filmmaker, 60, is picking bunches of dusty purple dark berries from rows of vines slung across the cliff-side with the help of her daughter, Luca. The conservationist, a wildlife and conservation film-maker who has worked on streaming service's nature programming and BBC Two's gardening shows, was motivated to plant grapes after seeing her neighbour's grapevines. She has learned that hobbyists can make intriguing, enjoyable natural wine, which can sell for upwards of £7 a serving in the increasing quantity of establishments specialising in minimal-intervention vintages. "It is incredibly satisfying that you can actually create quality, natural wine," she says. "It's very fashionable, but in reality it's resurrecting an old way of making vintage."

"When I tread the fruit, all the wild yeasts are released from the surfaces and enter the liquid," says the winemaker, ankle deep in a bucket of small branches, seeds and red liquid. "This represents how wines were historically produced, but industrial wineries introduce sulphur [dioxide] to eliminate the wild yeast and subsequently add a commercially produced yeast."

Challenging Conditions and Inventive Solutions

In the immediate vicinity active senior another cultivator, who motivated Scofield to establish her grapevines, has gathered his friends 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 worked at Bristol University developed a passion for wine on annual sporting trips to France. But it is a challenge to grow this particular variety in the dampness of the gorge, with cooling tides sweeping in and out from the nearby estuary. "I wanted to make French-style vintages in this location, which is somewhat ambitious," says the retiree with amusement. "This variety is late to ripen and very sensitive to fungal infections."

"My goal was creating European-style vintages here, which is a bit bonkers"

The unpredictable Bristol climate is not the only problem faced by winegrowers. Reeve has had to install a barrier on