English Wine Celebrates Bumper Harvest

This is the highest volume ever made, smashing a previous record of 3.5 million bottles and up from 3.1 million in 2009. The figures, from trade body English Wine Producers, said that 30,346 hectolitres was produced in 2010.

This substantial increase is further proof that the UK's wine industry is being taken seriously by growers and consumers alike. Indeed, in the last five years the land committed to the production of wine grapes has grown by almost 75%. Calculations based on the current acreage indicate that, when in full production, volumes of UK wines could reach over five million bottles in the future.

Grape varieties that are used to make sparkling wine – such as Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier – are apparently the most common type grown in the UK, and the findings suggest that up to 50% of the wine made in the UK is sparkling.

At last year's Decanter World Wine Awards a wine from Ridgeview, a little-known Sussex grower, fought off competition from numerous acclaimed Champagne houses to be named as the best sparkling wine in the world.