Yes I know this is more my thing, but there is a land thing in here, so read on:-
Champagne sales are going to decline here, and English sparkling wine will eventually take half of champagne’s share.” So predicts Ian Kellett, once managing director at the investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and now owner of Hambledon Vineyard in Hampshire. He’s convinced that England’s advantage is its lower land costs (Champagne’s are €0.9m to €2.1m a hectare). And he maintains there is no shortage of suitable land in England — “if the farmers will sell it”. He also expects champagne prices to continue to rise along with the debt burden of maturing their stock.
The thing is that the only reason Champagne's land prices are so high is because of demand for the land. You'd think a former banker would get this.
A little background to those not in the know:
To call your wine Champagne, it has to follow the rules of the Appelation d'Origine Controlee of Champagne. That includes a list of rules, like what grape varieties you can use, but more importantly for this, it also defines the geographic area. And that is a rather artificial area. Some land inside of it really isn't much good, some land outside would be better. You can grow a damn good sparkling wine just outside using the same processes and grapes but you can't call it Champagne.
So as Champagne attracts a premium just on its name (a combination of ignorance and it being a Veblen good), what do we think the effect of that is on land prices inside the Champagne area? Yeah. Also worth noting: there's a similar battle to developers and homies with this: people with land just outside want the region expanded, people who own land in the region don't.
See, this guy has it wrong. England's advantage isn't having cheaper lands, it's having lower demand for the product. The land is only more expensive because of higher demand. If more people switch to English wine, the price of Champagne will fall, and with it, the value of the land it's grown on. It's still probably more suitable land for growing sparkling wine on.
The rest of the article is quite interesting if you're into general wine stuff. It seems quite a lot of producers are hobby businesses - people who've made money doing something else and are now pumping money into them. And it's still precarious from a climate perspective. Personally, I've not found one I like yet, but some people do like them.