Christmas and the millennium will be celebrated with English bubbly and wine as more and more shoppers boycott French produce.

The country's English wine producers are enjoying their most successful festive season ever as consumers turn their back on French food and drink in protest against the ban on British beef.

Christopher Ann, who runs the English Wine Centre at Alfriston, has seen a huge increase in sales and interest in English wine since the ban started. This has been coupled with national newspapers urging their readers to buy British and listing home-produced alternatives to French food and wine.

Mr Ann said: "The response has been quite amazing with many people actively seeking out British food and drink in the run-up to Christmas. We have noticed a large increase in visitors to our website as well as people coming into the shop and asking what wine from Britain they can buy instead of champagne or wines to go with traditional festive meals.

"A lot of people are trying English wine for the first time and others are returning to taste it again. Invariably they are all very pleasantly surprised that English still and sparkling wines are now a match for their French counterparts. They also realise it is not as expensive as they might have thought when compared with wines of a similar quality.

"English wine has come on in leaps and bounds in the last decade and regularly beats French wines in blind tastings in international competitions. This is the message we have been trying to get across and the buy British campaign means that more people are now tasting it and finding out for themselves.

"In addition to white, rose and sparkling wines, there are now some excellent English reds which really are equally as good as quality French wines."

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