Wildflowers - Dry Vermouth

Our latest release: a collaboration with Gutter&Stars urban winery.

 

A striking, layered white vermouth built on a base wine unlike anything we've worked with before - Crouch Valley Chardonnay from the 2023 vintage, aged 30 months in ex-Burgundy oak.

 

We took our botanical cues from friends, local growers and our own herb garden to build a hyper-seasonal aperitif around this special wine rather than over it. Everything here comes from the east of England: magnolia, elderflower, fennel, lemon balm, bay, thyme, saffron, wormwood and southernwood (cola plant).

 

It opens with wild fennel, lemon balm and magnolia flowers from our friend Catherine McCarthy. All three were picked and macerated the same day - bright anise from the fennel, soft citrus and green notes from the lemon balm, ginger and lemon peel from the magnolia.

 

Another friend of the distillery and winery - Cambridge-based grower Rosemary Talbot - brought bay and thyme for the herbaceous backbone, and the brightest elderflower picked that morning which we both distilled and infused into the finishing sugar syrup.

 

Next up, saffron. Saffron was grown around Saffron Walden for centuries, and the soil was said to give it a superior flavour of its own. That's what we're chasing here: deep and perfumed, with a warm savoury edge. It's also responsible for the vermouth's beautiful golden hue.

 

Alas. The saffron, ironically, is not from Saffron Walden - we couldn't find any nearby (new business idea, anyone?) so we went to the best: Sandlings Saffron in Orford, Suffolk, for a small batch of immaculate fronds.

 

Last in is southernwood, also known as cola plant, cut from our own herb garden outside the distillery door. It brings a sweet camphor and confectionery note, with a long green bitter finish much like its sibling wormwood. A vermouth botanical hiding in plain sight.

 

The result is a rich, herbaceous and floral vermouth with an incredible balance of acidity and depth, built to show off the oak-aged Chardonnay underneath it and the wildflowers alongside it.

 

Enjoy over ice, topped with good tonic, or in the ultimate wild foraged martini.