Winemaking isn’t the first word that springs to mind when you think of thriving British industry. It has long been seen as the preserve of the continentals and something that we just don’t have the weather for.

But even if our climate can’t compete with wine-growing regions of the continent, it seems that our wine is fast beginning to. Recently a panel of experts even favoured wine produced by Sussex vineyards above champagne in blind taste tests.

And it is in the South East of England where you’ll find some of the greatest success stories in the English wine renaissance. Vineyards like Denbies in Dorking, Surrey; Ridgeview, in the countryside near Brighton; and Rathfinny Wine Estate in Alfriston, East Sussex are all harvesting the rewards of a new thirst for South East English tipples.

Millennia ago when Britain was still part of the European landmass, large swaths of south-east England were joined to what is now France’s modern-day Champagne region. Vineyards grew in Britain in abundance during Roman times, and then again during the Middle Ages during a brief warm spell that lasted roughly from 950 to 1250 AD.

The Champagne region may have evolved into the world’s capital of celebratory fizz, but both it and south-east England have retained their unique chalky soil, in which vines thrive. This kind of limestone-heavy soil is rare – so rare, in fact, that Champagne region vintners have been hunting around the English South East in search of more land upon which to expand. Agricultural land in Surrey is about 10 times cheaper than in corresponding areas of France.

English wine-growers, particularly those in the south-east and in and around London, are starting to take advantage. The older brands are getting better at producing wines, while a growing number of new players are looking to enter the market. Together, they are slowly starting to prove that British wine is anything but unquaffable.