Oxfordshire companies link up to create new vermouth

Bampton-based Wood Brothers Distilling Company, run by Ed and Charlie Wood, have teamed up with Cotswold wine company – Freedom of the Press to produce their first ever vermouth using their second press wine.

It will sit alongside House Vodka and House Gin and is part of a range that can be bought for under £30.00.

Freedom of the Press are based on a farm in Minster Lovell and are a vineless winery. They make a Pinot Gris, a Chardonnay and a Bacchus.

“It was our idea and we approached Gavin, over at Freedom of the Press, about a possible collaboration,” said Ed Wood of Wood Brothers. “It is all about the spirit after all and we think we have created something quite special using this second press.

“Vermouth is an under rated spirit, in my opinion and can be used in a variety of ways,” Ed Wood added.

Freedom of the Press is an "urban winery" on a hill in the Cotswolds. The original plan was to establish an ‘urban winery’ in Oxford, buying the best grapes from across the country. It planned to operate more like an in-town micro brewery or boutique distillery than what most people think of as a vineyard. But thanks to Covid, the Oxford venue fell through. So they found a new home, a unit on a beautiful farm above Minster Lovell in the Cotswolds, 15 miles from Oxford.

The winery has developed relationships with a few growers in Essex. In a typical year Essex is drier and sunnier than anywhere else, meaning the grapes become riper. The team also say that the London clay is proving to be a perfect soil to develop powerful complex flavours in cool-climate still wines.