With English wine still hard to find on the shelves of many supermarkets, it's often described as England's best kept secret. But a proliferation of new vineyards and locally produced wines that are beating the French at their own game are putting a bit of a sparkle into Sussex wines.

While the country is raising a glass of bubbly to the Queen in her Diamond Jubilee weekend, English Wine Week celebrates English wines from Saturday June 2 through to Sunday June 10 with a series of events in the vineyards across the land including Sussex. From wine tastings to tours, the week is aimed at introducing home-grown wines to the surprising number of people who have never tasted English wine.

Long dominated by wines from France, Italy, Spain, Germany, America and Australia, it has been largely through the popularity of farmers' markets, farm shops and country fairs that English wines have begun to gain a foothold in Britain's wine market.

Sussex producers have already been winning the accolades and the awards. Last year, Ridgeview Wine Estate at Ditchling Common won the trophy for Best Sparkling Wine in the World for the third time and Nyetimber at West Chiltington was crowned Champion of Worldwide Sparkling Wines 2009 ahead of 13 champagnes, As long ago as 1993, the long-established Sussex vineyard Breaky Bottom won gold in the International Wine Challenge with its Seyval Blanc 1990, while Sedlescombe Organic Vineyard at Robertsbridge has scooped many accolades for its reds and whites, as well as its organic juices. Bacchus, a white wine made from a single variety bacchus grape, at Highdown Vineyard in Ferring won bronze in the 2010 South East Wine of the Year. Meanwhile, the Bolney Wine Estate at Bolney has just released three new vintages, 2011 Pinot Noir, 2011 Bolney Rose limited edition and 2011 Lychgate White, and has also refurbished its shop and cafe for its increasing numbers of visitors.

“Sussex has an extremely good climate for wine production,” says Chris Foss, chairman of the South East Vineyards Association. “It compares well to other counties. Surrey, for example, is warmer than Sussex but has a frost situation, which can kill its primary buds on the vines. Sussex, by contrast, has later bud bursts and ripening, which is better.”

And while Surrey is home to the country's largest vineyard, Denbies, which has 200 acres of vines under cultivation, planting began this spring at the 400-acre Rathfinny Estate in the South Downs in Sussex. Its size will put it in second place behind the 238-acre Nyetimber estate in Sussex, and it expects to be producing wine by 2017.

Former hedge fund manager Mark Driver and his wife Sarah bought the Rathfinny Estate, near Alfriston, last year and will plant 50 acres a year, aiming to produce one million bottles of premium sparkling wine plus some still wine per year. “The first step in establishing a vineyard was to find the perfect land,” says Mark, who gave up his career in the City and enrolled at Plumpton College to study viticulture. “Climate change is favouring southern England for the growing of grape varieties classically used in sparkling wine, and the South Downs provide the perfect conditions to grow grapes, very similar conditions to those found across the Channel in the Champagne region.”

Rathfinny, he says, is “an expensive, long-term investment” and he has taken on an international team of viticulturalists and winemakers.

The huge Rathfinny Estate is only one of the crop of new vineyards that is turning swathes of the Sussex countryside into rows of vines. The 10-acre Court Garden, on the outskirts of Ditchling, was established in 2005 and its first vintage from 2007 was small, although subsequent years have been abundant. Similarly, planting at the Bluebell Vineyards Estates at Furners Green, Uckfield, began in 2005 and its first harvest was in 2007. The following year, its Hindleap Blanc de Blanc was selected as one of wine expert Jancis Robinson's favourites, when she commented, “I've never felt so excited about the quality of English sparkling wine.”

Sussex wine production is going to grow, predicts Mr Foss. “But we have to get it on to the High Street,” he says. “A lot of people are banking on the local markets or the tourist markets. Local people are crying out for it, which is fine up to a point. The point is that when so many local vineyards are producing, there is a limit to the market and then you have to start exporting. Sussex vineyards are revelling in their awards over big French names, such as Moet & Chandon. But Moet & Chandon produce two-and-a-half million bottles a year. Locals produce 2,000 bottles. And the big names have sophisticated production and marketing teams working for them. That's the difference. We need to take at least 10% of the Champagne market away and generate our own market by encouraging English people to drink more sparkling wine.”

The huge advantages that Mark Driver at the Rathfinny Estate has seen in establishing a vineyard in Sussex are there in its climate and its geology, he says. “England produces little, but there's a good market for domestically produced products of good quality.”