British vineyards could produce best wine ever this year after summer heatwave

British vineyards are set for a bumper batch of fine wine, all thanks to climate change.

Vintners are predicting the record-breaking dry summer could yield the best plonk the UK has ever produced.

The prolonged period of hot sun means the grapes will be packed with natural sugars and won’t need any artificial sweetening added to them.

But wine lovers will have to wait to taste the 2022 vintage, as the varieties will not be ready to drink for another three years.

Alex Taylor, who runs the Independent English Wine Awards, said: “2018 was celebrated as the ‘vintage of a lifetime’ for growing grapes in the UK, but that year seems unlikely to hold on to the title for long.”

Wine lovers will have to wait to taste the 2022 vintage (PA)

Justin Langham, of the Langham Wine Estate in Dorset, said as long as the dry weather holds across southern England for a few more weeks he could be harvesting the perfect crop of grapes.

He added: “Forty years ago you could not have produced the grapes that we have now.

“Due to climate change it will be easier to ferment high quality wine in England.”