England and Wales

The English vineyard area has multiplied several times over since 2000 and is now the fastest-growing in Europe from a small base. The cause is warming: southern England has moved into the temperature band that Champagne occupied in the mid twentieth century, and the geology already matched. The chalk of the North and South Downs is the same Cretaceous formation that runs under the Paris basin and surfaces in Champagne.

Roughly two thirds of production is traditional-method sparkling wine from chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier. It works because the marginal climate leaves high acidity in the fruit, which is exactly what a base wine for sparkling needs. Several Champagne houses have now bought land in Kent and Hampshire, which is the clearest possible verdict on the site.

The still wines are improving and are mostly bacchus, a German crossing that behaves in England somewhat as sauvignon blanc does elsewhere, plus increasing amounts of chardonnay and pinot noir in warm years. The constraint is spring frost and a wet flowering, which can cut a crop by half without warning.