🔗 Share this article

Every 20 minutes or so, an older diesel train arrives at a graffiti-covered station. Nearby, a police siren cuts through the near-constant road noise. Daily travelers rush by falling apart, ivy-covered fencing panels as rain clouds form.

This is maybe the last place you expect to find a perfectly formed vineyard. However James Bayliss-Smith has managed to 40 mature vines sagging with round purplish grapes on a rambling garden plot situated between a row of 1930s houses and a commuter railway just above the city downtown.

"I've seen individuals concealing illegal substances or other items in the shrubbery," states Bayliss-Smith. "Yet you just get on with it ... and keep tending to your vines."

The cameraman, forty-six, a filmmaker who runs a fermented beverage company, is among several urban winemaker. He's pulled together a informal group of cultivators who make wine from four hidden urban vineyards tucked away in back gardens and community plots throughout Bristol. The project is sufficiently underground to have an formal title so far, but the collective's messaging chat is named Grape Expectations.

City Wine Gardens Across the World

To date, the grower's allotment is the sole location registered in the City Vineyard Network's forthcoming global directory, which features more famous urban wineries such as the eighteen hundred vines on the slopes of the French capital's renowned artistic district area and more than 3,000 grapevines overlooking and inside Turin. Based in Italy non-profit association is at the forefront of a movement re-establishing city vineyards in traditional winemaking countries, but has identified them all over the globe, including cities in East Asia, South Asia and Central Asia.

"Grape gardens help cities stay greener and more diverse. They preserve land from construction by establishing permanent, productive farming plots inside cities," says the organization's leader.

Like all wines, those created in urban areas are a product of the soils the plants grow in, the unpredictability of the climate and the people who care for the fruit. "Each vintage embodies the charm, community, environment and history of a urban center," adds the president.

Unknown Polish Variety

Returning to the city, the grower is in a urgent timeline to gather the grapevines he grew from a cutting left in his allotment by a Eastern European household. Should the precipitation comes, then the pigeons may seize their chance to attack again. "This is the mystery Eastern European variety," he comments, as he cleans bruised and mouldy grapes from the shimmering bunches. "We don't really know their exact classification, but they are certainly 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 unique cultivar that was bred by the Eastern Bloc."

Group Activities Across the City

The other members of the collective are additionally taking advantage of sunny interludes between showers of fall precipitation. At a rooftop garden with views of the city's glistening waterfront, where medieval merchant vessels once floated with casks of vintage from France and the Iberian peninsula, one cultivator is harvesting her dark berries from approximately 50 vines. "I adore the smell of these vines. It is so evocative," she remarks, pausing with a container of grapes slung over her arm. "It's the scent of southern France when you open the vehicle windows on vacation."

The humanitarian worker, fifty-two, who has spent over 20 years working for charitable groups in conflict zones, inadvertently took over the vineyard when she moved back to the UK from East Africa with her family in recent years. She experienced an overwhelming duty to look after the grapevines in the yard of their recently acquired property. "This vineyard has already survived multiple proprietors," she says. "I deeply appreciate the concept of natural stewardship – of passing this on to someone else so they keep cultivating from the soil."

Sloping Gardens and Natural Winemaking

Nearby, the remaining cultivators of the group are hard at work on the steep inclines of Avon Gorge. Jo Scofield has established more than 150 plants perched on terraces in her expansive property, which descends towards the muddy River Avon. "Visitors frequently express amazement," she notes, gesturing towards the interwoven vineyard. "They can't believe they can see grapevine lines in a city street."

Today, the filmmaker, sixty, is harvesting bunches of dusty purple dark berries from lines of plants arranged along the hillside with the help of her child, Luca. Scofield, a wildlife and conservation film-maker who has contributed to streaming service's nature programming and BBC Two's gardening shows, was motivated to plant grapes after seeing her neighbour's vines. She's discovered that hobbyists can make intriguing, pleasurable traditional vintage, which can sell for upwards of £7 a serving in the growing number of wine bars focusing on low-processing vintages. "It's just incredibly satisfying that you can actually create good, traditional vintage," she states. "It is quite on trend, but in reality it's reviving an traditional method of producing vintage."

"During foot-stomping the grapes, the various natural microorganisms are released from the surfaces into the juice," says Scofield, partially submerged in a container of small branches, pips and red liquid. "This represents how vintages were historically produced, but commercial producers add sulphur [dioxide] to kill the natural cultures and then incorporate a commercially produced yeast."

Challenging Conditions and Creative Solutions

A few doors down sprightly retiree Bob Reeve, who inspired Scofield to establish her grapevines, has gathered his friends to harvest white wine varieties from the 100 plants he has arranged precisely across multiple levels. Reeve, a Lancashire-born PE teacher who worked at the local university cultivated an interest in viticulture on annual sporting trips to Europe. However it is a difficult task to cultivate Chardonnay grapes in the dampness of the valley, with cooling tides sweeping in and out from the nearby estuary. "I aimed to produce Burgundian wines here, which is somewhat ambitious," says Reeve with a smile. "This variety is late to ripen and very sensitive to fungal infections."

"I wanted to make European-style vintages in this environment, which is a bit bonkers"

The unpredictable local weather is not the only challenge faced by winegrowers. The gardener has been compelled to install a fence on