Sauvignon Blanc put Marlborough on the world map.

However, it’s currently leaving a sour taste in the mouths of English villagers who find their streets are being constantly littered with empty bottles of New Zealand wines.

Residents of Hotham and North Cave, in East Yorkshire, say for months bags of empty sauvignon blanc bottles have been appearing discarded in the lanes between their picturesque villages.

One local farmer showed the BBC a trailer load of at least 35 wine bottles they’d picked up from public grass verges, but said the collection was not their largest. “The most I’ve collected in one day is 48.”

Most of the bottles the farmer scavenged appear to be Villa Maria private bin sauvignon blanc, which sells for £10.75 ($24.86) in the local supermarket.

However, the mystery litterbug appears to have a particular penchant for the New Zealand varietal, with bottles of Brancott Estate and Oyster Bay also amongst the haul.

Local villager Simon Robinson, told the BBC the discoveries were “bizarre”.

“I know there’s sort of a fly-tipping epidemic,” he said, “but that takes the biscuit, doesn’t it?”

Sauvignon blanc now makes up more than 70% of all wine produced in New Zealand. Photo / Getty

Other locals voiced concerns about the danger littered glass could pose to runners, horse riders and agricultural workers who cut the long grass on the verges for hay.

Fly-tipping is the illegal dumping of household or commercial waste on land which has no licence to accept waste, such as a roadside or in a field. As a criminal offence, those proven to have fly-tipped can be fined or prosecuted.

East Riding of Yorkshire Council was not aware of a particular issue in the area and encouraged residents to report every incident of fly-tipping.

It currently costs the council about £350,000 ($809,436) annually to clear up fly-tipped waste from the roadside.

Locals have floated the idea of installing cameras to catch the person responsible, with one local telling the BBC, “If we do find the culprit, no doubt we’ll have a drink to celebrate – but it won’t be white wine”.