🔗 Share this article

Every quarter of an hour or so, an ageing diesel railway carriage arrives at a graffiti-covered station. Close by, a police siren pierces the almost continuous traffic drone. Daily travelers rush by falling apart, ivy-covered garden fences as storm clouds gather.

It is maybe the least likely spot you anticipate to find a well-established grape-growing plot. However one local grower has managed to 40 mature vines heavy with round purplish berries on a rambling allotment sandwiched between a line of historic homes and a local rail line just above the city town centre.

"I've seen individuals concealing heroin or whatever in those bushes," says Bayliss-Smith. "Yet you just get on with it ... and keep tending to your vines."

The cameraman, forty-six, a documentary cameraman who runs a kombucha drinks business, is not the only urban winemaker. He's organized a loose collective of cultivators who make wine from several discreet city grape gardens tucked away in back gardens and allotments throughout the city. It is sufficiently underground to have an official name yet, but the group's WhatsApp group is called Grape Expectations.

City Wine Gardens Across the Globe

To date, the grower's allotment is the sole location registered in the Urban Vineyards Association's upcoming world atlas, which features more famous city vineyards such as the 1,800 vines on the hillsides of the French capital's renowned Montmartre area and over 3,000 grapevines overlooking and inside the Italian city. Based in Italy charitable organization is at the forefront of a movement re-establishing city vineyards in historic wine-producing nations, but has identified them throughout the globe, including urban centers in Japan, South Asia and Uzbekistan.

"Vineyards assist urban areas remain more eco-friendly and ecologically varied. These spaces preserve open space from construction by creating permanent, productive farming plots inside cities," says the organization's leader.

Like all wines, those created in cities are a product of the soils the vines thrive in, the unpredictability of the weather and the people who tend the grapes. "A bottle of wine embodies the charm, local spirit, landscape and heritage of a urban center," notes the president.

Unknown Eastern European Variety

Back in Bristol, Bayliss-Smith is in a race against time to harvest the grapevines he cultivated from a plant abandoned in his garden by a Polish family. Should the precipitation comes, then the pigeons may take advantage to feast once more. "This is the mystery Eastern European variety," he says, as he cleans bruised and mouldy berries from the shimmering bunches. "We don't really know their exact classification, but they are certainly hardy. In contrast to noble varieties – Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and additional renowned European varieties – you need not treat them with pesticides ... this could be a unique cultivar that was developed by the Soviets."

Group Efforts Across the City

The other members of the collective are additionally taking advantage of bright periods between bursts of autumn rain. At a rooftop garden overlooking Bristol's shimmering waterfront, where medieval merchant vessels once floated with barrels of vintage from France and the Iberian peninsula, one cultivator is harvesting her rondo grapes from about fifty vines. "I adore the smell of these vines. It is so reminiscent," she remarks, stopping with a container of fruit slung over her shoulder. "It's the scent of southern France when you roll down the vehicle windows on holiday."

Grant, 52, who has devoted more than two decades working for humanitarian organizations in conflict zones, unexpectedly inherited the grape garden when she returned to the UK from East Africa with her household in 2018. She experienced an strong responsibility to maintain the grapevines in the yard of their new home. "This plot has already endured multiple proprietors," she explains. "I really like the concept of natural stewardship – of passing this on to future caretakers so they continue producing from the soil."

Terraced Vineyards and Natural Production

Nearby, the final two members of the group are busily laboring on the precipitous slopes of the local river valley. Jo Scofield has cultivated more than 150 plants situated on ledges in her wild half-acre garden, which tumbles down towards the muddy local waterway. "Visitors frequently express amazement," she notes, gesturing towards the interwoven grape garden. "They can't believe they are viewing grapevine lines in a city street."

Today, the filmmaker, 60, is harvesting clusters of deep violet dark berries from lines of plants arranged along the cliff-side with the help of her daughter, Luca. Scofield, a documentary producer who has contributed to streaming service's nature programming and BBC Two's gardening shows, was inspired to cultivate vines after observing her neighbour's vines. She's discovered that hobbyists can make interesting, pleasurable natural wine, which can command prices of upwards of seven pounds a serving in the increasing quantity of wine bars specialising in minimal-intervention vintages. "It is deeply rewarding that you can actually make good, traditional vintage," she says. "It is quite on trend, but in reality it's reviving an old way of producing vintage."

"When I tread the grapes, the various natural microorganisms are released from the surfaces and enter the juice," explains Scofield, partially submerged in a bucket of small branches, seeds and crimson juice. "That's how vintages were historically produced, but industrial wineries add sulphur [dioxide] to kill the natural cultures and subsequently add a commercially produced yeast."

Challenging Environments and Creative Approaches

In the immediate vicinity active senior Bob Reeve, who inspired Scofield to establish her grapevines, has gathered his friends to pick white wine varieties from one hundred plants he has laid out neatly across multiple levels. The former teacher, a northern English PE teacher who worked at Bristol University developed a passion for viticulture on regular visits to France. However it is a challenge to cultivate Chardonnay grapes in the dampness of the gorge, with cooling tides sweeping in and out from the nearby estuary. "I aimed to produce Burgundian wines in this location, which is somewhat ambitious," admits the retiree with a smile. "This variety is slow-maturing and particularly vulnerable to mildew."

"My goal was creating Burgundian wines in this environment, which is a bit bonkers"

The temperamental local weather is not the only challenge faced by winegrowers. Reeve has been compelled to erect a fence on