🔗 Share this article

Every 20 minutes or so, an ageing diesel train pulls into a graffiti-covered stop. Nearby, a police siren pierces the near-constant traffic drone. Commuters hurry past collapsing, ivy-draped garden fences as rain clouds gather.

It is maybe the least likely spot you anticipate to find a perfectly formed grape-growing plot. However James Bayliss-Smith has cultivated four dozen established plants sagging with round mauve grapes on a sprawling allotment sandwiched between a line of 1930s houses and a commuter railway 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 continue caring for your vines."

Bayliss-Smith, 46, a documentary cameraman who also has a fermented beverage company, is among several urban winemaker. He has organized a loose collective of growers who make vintage from four discreet urban vineyards nestled in private yards and community plots across Bristol. It is too clandestine to have an official name yet, but the group's messaging chat is called Vineyard Dreams.

Urban Vineyards Across the World

So far, Bayliss-Smith's plot is the sole location registered in the City Vineyard Network's forthcoming global directory, which features better-known city vineyards such as the 1,800 vines on the hillsides of Paris's renowned artistic district area and more than 3,000 grapevines with views of and inside Turin. The Italian-based non-profit association is at the forefront of a movement re-establishing city vineyards in historic wine-producing countries, but has identified them all over the world, including urban centers in Japan, South Asia and Uzbekistan.

"Grape gardens assist urban areas stay more eco-friendly and more diverse. These spaces protect open space from development by creating long-term, productive farming plots within cities," says the organization's leader.

Similar to other vintages, those produced in cities are a product of the earth the plants grow in, the vagaries of the climate and the people who tend the fruit. "A bottle of wine represents the beauty, community, environment and heritage of a urban center," adds the spokesperson.

Mystery Polish Variety

Returning to the city, the grower is in a urgent timeline to gather the vines he grew from a plant abandoned in his garden by a Polish family. If the precipitation arrives, then the birds may take advantage to attack again. "Here we have the mystery Eastern European grape," he says, as he removes bruised and mouldy grapes from the shimmering clusters. "The variety remains uncertain their exact classification, but they are certainly hardy. In contrast to premium grapes – Pinot Noir, white wine grapes and additional renowned French grapes – you need not spray them with chemicals ... this could be a unique cultivar that was developed by the Soviets."

Collective Activities Throughout the City

The other members of the collective are also making the most of bright periods between showers of autumn rain. On the terrace overlooking the city's shimmering harbour, where medieval merchant vessels once bobbed with barrels of wine from France and Spain, one cultivator is collecting her rondo grapes from approximately 50 plants. "I love the aroma of these vines. The scent is so evocative," she says, stopping with a basket of grapes slung over her shoulder. "It's the scent of Provence when you open the car windows on holiday."

Grant, 52, who has devoted more than two decades working for humanitarian organizations in war-torn regions, inadvertently inherited the vineyard when she moved back to the UK from Kenya with her family in 2018. She experienced an strong responsibility to maintain the vines in the yard of their recently acquired property. "This vineyard has previously survived multiple proprietors," she explains. "I deeply appreciate the idea of environmental care – of passing this on to future caretakers so they can continue producing from the soil."

Terraced Vineyards and Natural Production

A short walk away, the final two members of the group are busily laboring on the precipitous slopes of the local river valley. One filmmaker has established more than 150 vines situated on ledges in her expansive property, which tumbles down towards the silty local waterway. "Visitors frequently express amazement," she says, gesturing towards the interwoven grape garden. "It's astonishing to them they can see grapevine lines in a urban neighborhood."

Today, Scofield, 60, is picking bunches of deep violet Rondo grapes from lines of plants arranged along the hillside with the help of her daughter, Luca. The conservationist, a documentary producer who has contributed to streaming service's Great National Parks series and BBC Two's gardening shows, was inspired to plant grapes after observing her neighbor's grapevines. She's discovered that amateurs can produce interesting, pleasurable traditional vintage, which can sell for more than £7 a glass in the increasing quantity of wine bars specialising in low-processing vintages. "It is incredibly satisfying that you can actually create good, traditional vintage," she states. "It's very on trend, but really it's resurrecting an old way of making vintage."

"During foot-stomping the grapes, all the wild yeasts come off the skins into the juice," says Scofield, ankle deep in a container of small branches, seeds and crimson juice. "This represents how wines were made traditionally, but commercial producers add preservatives to eliminate the wild yeast and then incorporate a lab-grown culture."

Difficult Conditions and Creative Solutions

A few doors down active senior another cultivator, who motivated Scofield to establish her vines, has assembled his companions to pick Chardonnay grapes from one hundred vines he has arranged precisely across two terraces. Reeve, a Lancashire-born physical education instructor who taught at Bristol University developed a passion for wine on annual sporting trips to France. However it is a difficult task to grow this particular variety in the humidity of the gorge, with cooling tides moving through from the Bristol Channel. "I wanted to produce Burgundian wines here, which is a bit bonkers," admits the retiree with amusement. "Chardonnay 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 temperamental local weather is not the only challenge faced by grape cultivators. Reeve has had to erect a fence on