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Each quarter of an hour or so, an ageing diesel railway carriage arrives at a spray-painted stop. Close by, a police siren pierces the almost continuous traffic drone. Commuters hurry past falling apart, ivy-draped garden fences as storm clouds gather.

It is perhaps the least likely spot you expect to find a well-established vineyard. But James Bayliss-Smith has managed to 40 mature vines heavy with plump mauve berries on a sprawling garden plot situated between a row of 1930s houses and a local rail line just above Bristol downtown.

"I've seen individuals concealing heroin or other items in the shrubbery," says the grower. "But you just get on with it ... and keep tending to your vines."

Bayliss-Smith, forty-six, a documentary cameraman who runs a kombucha drinks business, is among several local vintner. He has pulled together a informal group of growers who produce wine from several hidden city grape gardens nestled in back gardens and community plots across the city. The project is sufficiently underground to possess an official name yet, but the collective's WhatsApp group is called Grape Expectations.

Urban Vineyards Across the World

To date, the grower's allotment is the sole location registered in the Urban Vineyards Association's upcoming global directory, which features more famous urban wineries such as the 1,800 vines on the slopes of the French capital's historic Montmartre neighbourhood and more than 3,000 vines overlooking and within Turin. The Italian-based charitable organization is at the vanguard of a movement reviving urban grape cultivation in traditional winemaking nations, but has identified them all over the globe, including urban centers in East Asia, South Asia and Uzbekistan.

"Grape gardens assist urban areas stay more eco-friendly and ecologically varied. They preserve land from construction by establishing long-term, yielding agricultural units inside cities," says the association's president.

Similar to other vintages, those created in cities are a product of the soils the plants thrive in, the vagaries of the weather and the individuals who tend the grapes. "Each vintage represents the beauty, community, environment and history of a city," adds the spokesperson.

Mystery Eastern European Grapes

Returning to the city, Bayliss-Smith is in a urgent timeline to gather the vines he grew from a cutting abandoned in his allotment by a Eastern European household. If the precipitation comes, then the birds may take advantage to attack once more. "Here we have the mystery Eastern European grape," he says, as he cleans bruised and rotten grapes from the shimmering clusters. "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 need not treat them with chemicals ... this is possibly a special variety that was developed by the Eastern Bloc."

Group Efforts Across Bristol

Additional participants of the group are additionally making the most of bright periods between showers of fall precipitation. On the terrace with views of Bristol's glistening harbour, where medieval merchant vessels once bobbed with barrels of wine from France and the Iberian peninsula, Katy Grant is harvesting her rondo grapes from about 50 plants. "I love the aroma of the grapevines. It is so reminiscent," she remarks, stopping with a container of grapes resting on her arm. "It recalls the fragrance of southern France when you roll down the vehicle windows on vacation."

The humanitarian worker, 52, who has devoted more than 20 years working for humanitarian organizations in conflict zones, inadvertently took over the grape garden when she returned to the United Kingdom from Kenya with her family in recent years. She experienced an overwhelming duty to maintain the grapevines in the garden of their recently acquired property. "This vineyard has already survived multiple proprietors," she explains. "I really like the idea of natural stewardship – of handing this down to someone else so they continue producing from the soil."

Terraced Vineyards and Natural Production

A short walk away, the final two members of the collective are hard at work on the precipitous slopes of the local river valley. One filmmaker has cultivated over 150 plants situated on terraces in her expansive property, which descends towards the muddy local waterway. "People are always surprised," she says, indicating the tangled grape garden. "It's astonishing to them they are viewing grapevine lines in a urban neighborhood."

Today, the filmmaker, 60, is picking clusters of deep violet dark berries from rows of vines arranged along the hillside with the help of her child, her family member. The conservationist, a documentary producer who has contributed to Netflix's nature programming and BBC Two's gardening shows, was inspired to plant grapes after seeing her neighbour's grapevines. She has learned that amateurs can make intriguing, pleasurable natural wine, which can command prices of upwards of seven pounds a glass in the growing number of establishments specialising in low-processing wines. "It's just incredibly satisfying that you can truly create quality, natural wine," she states. "It is quite on trend, but really it's resurrecting an traditional method of producing wine."

"When I tread the fruit, the various natural microorganisms come off the skins into the juice," explains the winemaker, ankle deep in a container of tiny stems, seeds and crimson juice. "This represents how wines were made traditionally, but industrial wineries introduce sulphur [dioxide] to eliminate the wild yeast and subsequently add a commercially produced yeast."

Difficult Environments and Creative Approaches

A few doors down active senior another cultivator, who motivated Scofield to establish her vines, has gathered his companions to harvest Chardonnay grapes from one hundred vines he has laid out neatly across two terraces. The former teacher, a Lancashire-born physical education instructor who taught at the local university developed a passion for viticulture on regular visits to Europe. However it is a difficult task to grow Chardonnay grapes in the humidity of the gorge, with cooling tides sweeping in and out from the nearby estuary. "I aimed to produce French-style vintages in this location, which is somewhat ambitious," admits the retiree with a smile. "This variety is late to ripen and very sensitive to mildew."

"I wanted to make Burgundian wines in this environment, which is a bit bonkers"

The temperamental local weather is not the sole problem faced by winegrowers. Reeve has been compelled to install a barrier on