The owner of one of the UK's smallest commercial vineyards has predicted a good harvest.

Tony Laithwaite, who started the vineyard using Chardonnay vines from France in 1998, said grapes for sparkling wine now have a perfect microclimate due to the heat from parked lorries, BBC News reports.

Winemaker at the establishment Henry Laithwaite explained he has recently sampled a number of top English sparkling wines, which can often be found in luxury gift hampers.

"I was amazed by the different styles of each wine and it was quite clear that they were not Champagne, but I don't mean that in a bad way," he added.

Such diversity is great to see and it "makes me wonder how our batch will turn out", Mr Laithwaite remarked.

He observed the different types of soils at vineyards across the UK are what give each beverage its distinctive taste.

Meanwhile, it seems sparkling wine is growing in popularity, as earlier this week figures from Wine Intelligence revealed 15 per cent of the country's 23 million wine drinkers now imbibe Prosecco.