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Every 20 minutes or so, an older diesel railway carriage arrives at a spray-painted stop. Nearby, a law enforcement alarm cuts through the near-constant traffic drone. Daily travelers rush by collapsing, ivy-covered garden fences as storm clouds form.

It is maybe the least likely spot you anticipate to find a well-established grape-growing plot. But one local grower has cultivated 40 mature vines sagging with plump mauve berries on a sprawling garden plot situated between a row of historic homes and a local rail line just north of Bristol town centre.

"I've noticed people hiding heroin or whatever in those bushes," says the grower. "Yet you simply continue ... and continue caring for your grapevines."

Bayliss-Smith, 46, a filmmaker who runs a fermented beverage company, is not the only urban winemaker. He's pulled together a informal group of cultivators who make wine from several hidden city grape gardens tucked away in private yards and community plots throughout the city. It is too clandestine to have an official name so far, but the group's WhatsApp group is called Grape Expectations.

Urban Wine Gardens Around the World

To date, Bayliss-Smith's allotment is the only one listed in the City Vineyard Network's forthcoming world atlas, which features more famous city vineyards such as the eighteen hundred vines on the hillsides of Paris's renowned Montmartre area and over 3,000 vines overlooking and within the Italian city. Based in Italy charitable organization is at the forefront of a initiative reviving urban grape cultivation in historic wine-producing countries, but has identified them throughout the globe, including cities in East Asia, Bangladesh and Central Asia.

"Grape gardens help urban areas stay more eco-friendly and ecologically varied. These spaces preserve land from development by establishing long-term, yielding agricultural units within urban environments," says the organization's leader.

Similar to other vintages, those created in cities are a product of the earth the vines thrive in, the vagaries of the climate and the individuals who tend the fruit. "Each vintage represents the charm, community, landscape and history of a urban center," adds the spokesperson.

Unknown Eastern European Grapes

Returning to the city, Bayliss-Smith is in a race against time to harvest the grapevines he grew from a cutting left in his allotment by a Eastern European household. Should the rain comes, then the birds may seize their chance to attack again. "This is the mystery Eastern European variety," he comments, as he cleans damaged and rotten berries from the glistering clusters. "The variety remains uncertain what variety they are, but they're definitely disease-resistant. Unlike premium grapes – Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and other famous French grapes – you don't have to spray them with pesticides ... this is possibly a special variety that was developed by the Eastern Bloc."

Group Efforts Throughout Bristol

The other members of the group are additionally making the most of bright periods between bursts of autumn rain. At a rooftop garden with views of the city's shimmering waterfront, where historic trading ships once floated with casks of vintage from France and Spain, one cultivator is collecting her dark berries from about 50 vines. "I love the aroma of the grapevines. The scent is so evocative," she says, stopping with a basket of fruit resting on her shoulder. "It recalls the fragrance of Provence when you open the car windows on holiday."

The humanitarian worker, 52, who has spent over 20 years working for charitable groups in war-torn regions, inadvertently took over the vineyard when she returned to the United Kingdom from Kenya with her family in recent years. She felt an strong responsibility to maintain the vines in the garden of their new home. "This plot has previously endured multiple proprietors," she says. "I deeply appreciate the concept of natural stewardship – of passing this on to someone else so they can continue producing from this land."

Sloping Gardens and Traditional Winemaking

Nearby, 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 vines perched on terraces in her wild half-acre garden, which tumbles down towards the muddy local waterway. "People are always surprised," she notes, indicating the tangled vineyard. "It's astonishing to them they can see grapevine lines in a urban neighborhood."

Today, Scofield, sixty, is harvesting clusters of dusty purple Rondo grapes from rows of plants arranged along the hillside with the assistance of her daughter, Luca. The conservationist, a wildlife and conservation film-maker who has contributed to Netflix's Great National Parks series and television network's Gardeners' World, was inspired to cultivate vines after observing her neighbour's vines. She's discovered that amateurs can make interesting, enjoyable natural wine, which can sell for upwards of seven pounds a serving in the growing number of establishments specialising in minimal-intervention wines. "It is incredibly satisfying that you can actually make good, traditional vintage," she says. "It's very on trend, but in reality it's reviving an traditional method of producing vintage."

"When I tread the grapes, all the wild yeasts are released from the skins and enter the liquid," says Scofield, partially submerged in a bucket of small branches, seeds and crimson juice. "This represents how vintages were made traditionally, but industrial wineries add sulphur [dioxide] to kill the wild yeast and then add a lab-grown yeast."

Challenging Conditions and Inventive Solutions

In the immediate vicinity sprightly retiree another cultivator, who inspired his neighbor to establish her vines, has gathered his companions to pick Chardonnay grapes from the 100 vines he has arranged precisely across multiple levels. The former teacher, a Lancashire-born physical education instructor who taught at Bristol University developed a passion for viticulture on regular visits to France. However it is a difficult task to cultivate Chardonnay grapes in the humidity of the gorge, with temperature fluctuations sweeping in and out from the Bristol Channel. "I aimed to make Burgundian wines here, which is a bit bonkers," says the retiree with amusement. "Chardonnay is slow-maturing and very sensitive to fungal infections."

"I wanted to make Burgundian wines in this environment, which is rather ambitious"

The temperamental Bristol climate is not the only problem encountered by grape cultivators. The gardener has had to install a barrier on