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Each 20 minutes or so, an ageing diesel-powered railway carriage pulls into a spray-painted stop. Nearby, a law enforcement alarm cuts through the almost continuous traffic drone. Commuters hurry past falling apart, ivy-covered fencing panels as storm clouds gather.

This is maybe the least likely spot you anticipate to find a perfectly formed vineyard. But James Bayliss-Smith has managed to 40 mature vines heavy with plump purplish grapes on a sprawling garden plot sandwiched between a row of 1930s houses and a commuter railway just north of the city town centre.

"I've noticed 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 grapevines."

The cameraman, 46, a documentary cameraman who also has a fermented beverage company, is not the only local vintner. He's pulled together a informal group of cultivators who make wine from several hidden city grape gardens tucked away in back gardens and allotments throughout the city. The project is too clandestine to have an formal title so far, but the group's WhatsApp group is called Vineyard Dreams.

Urban Wine Gardens Across the Globe

So far, the grower's allotment is the sole location registered in the City Vineyard Network's forthcoming world atlas, which features better-known urban wineries such as the 1,800 vines on the slopes of the French capital's historic Montmartre area and more than 3,000 vines overlooking and within the Italian city. The Italian-based charitable organization is at the vanguard of a movement reviving city vineyards in traditional winemaking countries, but has identified them all over the world, including urban centers in Japan, South Asia and Uzbekistan.

"Vineyards assist cities remain greener and ecologically varied. They preserve land from construction by creating long-term, productive farming plots inside cities," explains the organization's leader.

Similar to other vintages, those created in urban areas are a result of the earth the vines thrive in, the vagaries of the weather and the individuals who care for the grapes. "Each vintage represents the charm, community, environment and heritage of a city," notes the spokesperson.

Mystery Eastern European Variety

Returning to the city, the grower is in a urgent timeline to harvest the grapevines he cultivated from a cutting abandoned in his garden by a Polish family. Should the precipitation comes, then the birds may take advantage to attack once more. "Here we have the mystery Eastern European variety," he says, as he removes damaged and rotten berries from the glistering bunches. "The variety remains uncertain their exact classification, but they're definitely hardy. Unlike noble varieties – Burgundy grapes, Chardonnay and additional renowned French grapes – you need not treat them with pesticides ... this is possibly a special variety that was bred by the Eastern Bloc."

Collective Activities Across Bristol

Additional participants of the group are also taking advantage of sunny interludes between showers of fall precipitation. On the terrace overlooking Bristol's glistening harbour, where medieval merchant vessels once floated with casks of wine from Europe and Spain, one cultivator is collecting her dark berries from about fifty plants. "I adore the smell of these vines. It is so evocative," she remarks, pausing with a basket of fruit resting on her shoulder. "It recalls the fragrance of Provence when you roll down the car windows on holiday."

Grant, fifty-two, who has spent over two decades working for charitable groups in war-torn regions, inadvertently took over the vineyard when she moved back to the UK from East Africa with her household in 2018. She experienced an overwhelming duty to look after the grapevines in the yard of their recently acquired property. "This plot has already endured three different owners," she says. "I deeply appreciate the concept of environmental care – of handing this down to future caretakers so they can keep cultivating from the soil."

Terraced Gardens and Natural Winemaking

A short walk away, the final two members of the group are hard at work on the precipitous slopes of the local river valley. One filmmaker has established more than 150 vines situated on terraces in her expansive property, which descends towards the muddy local waterway. "People are always surprised," she says, indicating the interwoven vineyard. "They can't believe they are viewing grapevine lines in a urban neighborhood."

Today, the filmmaker, 60, is picking clusters of dusty purple Rondo grapes from lines of vines slung across the cliff-side with the help of her daughter, Luca. Scofield, a wildlife and conservation film-maker who has worked on Netflix's nature programming and BBC Two's gardening shows, was inspired to plant grapes after seeing her neighbor's vines. She has learned that hobbyists can make intriguing, enjoyable natural wine, which can command prices of upwards of seven pounds a glass in the growing number of wine bars focusing on minimal-intervention vintages. "It's just incredibly satisfying that you can actually make good, traditional vintage," she states. "It is quite fashionable, but really it's resurrecting an old way of making wine."

"When I tread the grapes, all the wild yeasts come off the skins into the liquid," explains Scofield, ankle deep in a bucket of small branches, pips and red liquid. "This represents how wines were made traditionally, but commercial producers add sulphur [dioxide] to kill the natural cultures and subsequently incorporate a commercially produced culture."

Difficult Environments and Inventive Approaches

A few doors down active senior Bob Reeve, who motivated Scofield to establish her vines, has gathered his companions to pick white wine varieties from the 100 plants he has laid out neatly across multiple levels. Reeve, a northern English PE teacher who worked at Bristol University cultivated an interest in viticulture on regular visits to Europe. However it is a difficult task to grow Chardonnay grapes in the dampness of the valley, with temperature fluctuations sweeping in and out from the Bristol Channel. "I aimed to produce Burgundian wines in this location, which is somewhat ambitious," says Reeve with a smile. "Chardonnay is slow-maturing and particularly vulnerable to fungal infections."

"My goal was creating European-style vintages in this environment, which is rather ambitious"

The temperamental local weather is not the sole challenge encountered by grape cultivators. The gardener has had to install a fence on