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Every 20 minutes or so, an ageing diesel-powered train arrives at a spray-painted station. Close by, a police siren cuts through the near-constant traffic drone. Commuters rush by falling apart, ivy-draped garden fences as storm clouds gather.

This is perhaps the least likely spot you expect to find a well-established vineyard. But one local grower has managed to 40 mature vines heavy with round purplish grapes on a sprawling allotment sandwiched between a row of historic homes and a commuter railway just above Bristol town centre.

"I've seen people concealing illegal substances or other items in those bushes," says Bayliss-Smith. "Yet you just get on with it ... and continue caring for your vines."

The cameraman, 46, a documentary cameraman who also has a kombucha drinks business, is among several urban winemaker. He's organized a loose collective of growers who make vintage from four discreet urban vineyards nestled in private yards and allotments across Bristol. It is too clandestine to possess an official name yet, but the collective's messaging chat is called Vineyard Dreams.

Urban Wine Gardens Across the World

So far, the grower's plot is the only one listed in the Urban Vineyards Association's upcoming world atlas, which includes better-known urban wineries such as the 1,800 plants on the hillsides of Paris's renowned artistic district neighbourhood and over 3,000 vines with views of and inside the Italian city. The Italian-based non-profit association is at the forefront of a movement re-establishing urban grape cultivation in historic wine-producing nations, but has identified them all over the globe, including urban centers in East Asia, South Asia and Central Asia.

"Vineyards assist cities stay more eco-friendly and more diverse. They protect open space from development by creating permanent, productive farming plots within cities," explains the association's president.

Like all wines, those produced in cities are a result of the soils the plants grow in, the vagaries of the climate and the individuals who tend the grapes. "A bottle of wine embodies the beauty, local spirit, environment and heritage of a urban center," adds the spokesperson.

Mystery Eastern European Grapes

Back in the city, the grower is in a urgent timeline to gather the grapevines he cultivated from a plant abandoned in his allotment by a Polish family. Should the precipitation arrives, then the birds may take advantage to attack again. "Here we have the enigmatic Eastern European grape," he comments, as he cleans bruised and mouldy berries from the glistering clusters. "The variety remains uncertain what variety they are, but they're definitely disease-resistant. In contrast to premium grapes – Burgundy grapes, Chardonnay and other famous French grapes – you don't have to treat them with chemicals ... this is possibly a special variety that was bred by the Soviets."

Group Efforts Across Bristol

Additional participants of the collective are also taking advantage of sunny interludes between showers of autumn rain. At a rooftop garden overlooking the city's shimmering waterfront, where historic trading ships once bobbed with barrels of wine from France and Spain, Katy Grant is harvesting her dark berries from approximately fifty vines. "I love the smell of the grapevines. It is so reminiscent," she says, stopping with a container of grapes resting on her shoulder. "It recalls the fragrance of Provence when you open the vehicle windows on holiday."

Grant, fifty-two, who has spent over two decades working for humanitarian organizations in war-torn regions, unexpectedly inherited the vineyard when she moved back to the UK from East Africa with her household in recent years. She experienced an strong responsibility to look after the grapevines in the garden of their recently acquired property. "This vineyard has previously endured three different owners," she explains. "I deeply appreciate the idea of natural stewardship – of passing this on to someone else so they keep cultivating from the soil."

Terraced Gardens and Natural Production

A short walk away, the final two members of the collective are busily laboring on the steep inclines of the local river valley. One filmmaker has established more than one hundred fifty vines situated on ledges in her wild half-acre garden, which tumbles down towards the muddy River Avon. "Visitors frequently express amazement," she notes, indicating the tangled grape garden. "It's astonishing to them they can see rows of vines in a city street."

Today, the filmmaker, sixty, is picking clusters of deep violet dark berries from lines of vines slung across the hillside with the assistance of her child, Luca. Scofield, a documentary producer who has worked on Netflix's nature programming and BBC Two's Gardeners' World, was motivated to plant grapes after observing her neighbour's grapevines. She has learned that amateurs can make intriguing, pleasurable natural wine, which can command prices of more than seven pounds a serving in the increasing quantity of establishments focusing on minimal-intervention wines. "It is deeply rewarding that you can actually create quality, traditional vintage," she states. "It is quite fashionable, but in reality it's reviving an traditional method of making vintage."

"When I tread the grapes, the various wild yeasts come off the skins and enter the juice," explains Scofield, ankle deep in a bucket of small branches, pips and crimson juice. "This represents how wines were historically produced, but commercial producers introduce preservatives to kill the wild yeast and subsequently add a commercially produced yeast."

Difficult Environments and Inventive Approaches

In the immediate vicinity sprightly retiree another cultivator, who motivated Scofield to establish her grapevines, has assembled his companions to pick Chardonnay grapes from one hundred plants he has laid out neatly across multiple levels. The former teacher, a Lancashire-born physical education instructor who worked at Bristol University developed a passion for wine on regular visits to France. But it is a difficult task 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 produce Burgundian wines here, which is a bit bonkers," says the retiree with amusement. "This variety is late to ripen and particularly vulnerable to mildew."

"My goal was creating European-style vintages in this environment, which is a bit bonkers"

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