🔗 Share this article

Every quarter of an hour or so, an older diesel train pulls into a graffiti-covered stop. Close by, a police siren pierces the near-constant traffic drone. Daily travelers rush by falling apart, ivy-covered garden fences as rain clouds gather.

It is maybe the last place you anticipate to find a well-established grape-growing plot. But James Bayliss-Smith has managed to 40 mature vines sagging with plump mauve grapes on a sprawling garden plot sandwiched between a row of 1930s houses and a local rail line just north of the city downtown.

"I've noticed people hiding illegal substances or whatever in those bushes," says Bayliss-Smith. "Yet you just get on with it ... and continue caring for your vines."

Bayliss-Smith, forty-six, a documentary cameraman who also has a fermented beverage company, is among several urban winemaker. He has organized a loose collective of cultivators who make vintage from several discreet urban vineyards nestled in private yards and allotments throughout the city. It is too clandestine to possess an official name yet, but the group's WhatsApp group is called Vineyard Dreams.

Urban Vineyards Across the Globe

So far, Bayliss-Smith's allotment is the sole location listed in the Urban Vineyards Association's forthcoming global directory, which features better-known urban wineries such as the 1,800 plants on the slopes of the French capital's historic Montmartre area and over 3,000 grapevines with views of and within Turin. The Italian-based non-profit association is at the forefront of a movement re-establishing urban grape cultivation in historic wine-producing countries, but has identified them throughout the globe, including urban centers in Japan, Bangladesh and Central Asia.

"Vineyards help cities remain greener and more diverse. They preserve land from construction by establishing long-term, productive farming plots within cities," explains the organization's leader.

Similar to other vintages, those created in urban areas are a result of the soils the plants thrive in, the vagaries of the weather and the people who tend the fruit. "A bottle of wine represents the beauty, local spirit, landscape and history of a city," notes the spokesperson.

Unknown Eastern European Grapes

Back in Bristol, Bayliss-Smith is in a race against time to harvest the vines he grew from a cutting left in his allotment by a Eastern European household. Should the precipitation arrives, then the birds may seize their chance to feast again. "This is the mystery Polish variety," he says, as he cleans damaged and mouldy grapes from the glistering clusters. "The variety remains uncertain their exact classification, but they are certainly hardy. Unlike premium grapes – Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and other famous European varieties – you don't have to spray them with pesticides ... this could be a special variety that was developed by the Eastern Bloc."

Collective Activities Across Bristol

The other members of the collective are additionally taking advantage of bright periods between showers of fall precipitation. At a rooftop garden overlooking the city's glistening waterfront, where medieval merchant vessels once floated with barrels of wine from Europe and the Iberian peninsula, one cultivator is harvesting her rondo grapes from about 50 plants. "I adore the aroma of the grapevines. The scent is so reminiscent," she says, pausing with a basket of fruit slung over her shoulder. "It recalls the fragrance of Provence when you open the car windows on holiday."

The humanitarian worker, fifty-two, who has devoted more than 20 years working for humanitarian organizations in war-torn regions, inadvertently inherited the vineyard when she moved back to the UK from Kenya with her household in 2018. She felt an overwhelming duty to maintain the grapevines in the yard of their new home. "This plot has previously endured multiple proprietors," she says. "I deeply appreciate the idea of environmental care – of handing this down to future caretakers so they can keep cultivating from the soil."

Sloping Gardens and Natural Production

A short walk away, the final two members of the group are busily laboring on the steep inclines of the local river valley. One filmmaker has established over 150 vines perched on terraces in her expansive property, which descends towards the muddy local waterway. "Visitors frequently express amazement," she notes, indicating the tangled vineyard. "It's astonishing to them they can see grapevine lines in a urban neighborhood."

Currently, Scofield, 60, is picking clusters of deep violet Rondo grapes from rows of vines slung across the cliff-side with the help of her daughter, her family member. The conservationist, a wildlife and conservation film-maker who has worked on Netflix's nature programming and television network's gardening shows, was inspired to plant grapes after seeing her neighbour's grapevines. She's discovered that amateurs can make intriguing, enjoyable traditional vintage, which can command prices of upwards of £7 a glass in the increasing quantity of establishments specialising in low-processing vintages. "It is incredibly satisfying that you can actually create quality, natural wine," she states. "It is quite on trend, but really it's resurrecting an traditional method of producing vintage."

"During foot-stomping the grapes, the various natural microorganisms come off the skins and enter the juice," explains the winemaker, ankle deep in a bucket of small branches, pips and crimson juice. "This represents how vintages were made traditionally, but commercial producers introduce preservatives to eliminate the wild yeast and then add a lab-grown culture."

Difficult Environments and Creative Solutions

In the immediate vicinity sprightly retiree Bob Reeve, who inspired Scofield to establish her grapevines, has assembled his friends to harvest white wine varieties from one hundred vines he has laid out neatly across two terraces. Reeve, a Lancashire-born physical education instructor who taught 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 humidity of the valley, with cooling tides moving through from the Bristol Channel. "I wanted to make French-style vintages in this location, which is somewhat ambitious," says the retiree with a smile. "This variety is late to ripen and very sensitive to mildew."

"I wanted to make European-style vintages here, which is rather ambitious"

The unpredictable Bristol climate is not the only challenge faced by grape cultivators. The gardener has had to install a fence on