With vineyards now dotted across hills in southern England and sustainability concerns growing,

local fizz is emerging as the drink of choice for many Britons.

"England is the newest New World wine region.It's a wine region that's being born right now, and that only happens once."

For hundreds of years Britons have celebrated by drinking French Champagne.

And the UK is still the world's second-biggest importer of Champagne.

But climate change and rising temperatures in recent decades have provided better growing conditions for grapes in England.

At the same time, rising concerns about carbon emissions is leading many British consumers to opt for local produce over imports where they can.

These trends are creating huge momentum for English wine.

Josh Donaghay-Spire is the head winemaker at wine estate Chapel Down.

"There's so much demand for English wine. We just cannot keep up with demand."

Viticulture is now Britain's fastest-growing agricultural sector.

And with more than 900 vineyards in England,

the UK is planting vines quicker than most of the world's biggest wine producing countries.

"The climate is changing. Agriculture is changing. Viticulture is a part of that. It's not the only thing going on, because what we've been able to do is to make world class, traditional method, sparkling wines, which have won excellent international awards, that has brought investment which has enabled us to acquire better land, as you can see, to employ better people, to have better equipment and machinery, to grow better grapes, make better wine, win more awards and more confidence. And that virtuous circle is just continuing at the moment."

Britain is forecast to produce 22 million bottles of wine a year by 2030, a sharp rise from about 12 million bottles in 2022. That's according to industry body WineGB.

And foreign companies do not want miss out.

Two of France's best-known Champagne houses, Taittinger and Pommery, have bought land in England.

Stressing the geological similarities of southern England's chalky slopes to those of its French home region, English winemarkers are going after Champagne's market.

"The size of the sparkling wine market in the UK is huge and growing, so we are really confident about the future of our business. English sparkling wine represents just a tiny fraction of the sparkling wine that we drink here in the UK, and we believe there's a lot of growth to happen here."