The Cotswold name is applied to everything from anoraks to mattresses that have little to do with our limestone hills. So isn’t it time we got into the fortified wine business?
I dropped into a fashionable pub outside Cirencester last week and, just to ring the changes, I asked for a schooner of dry sherry. If I had requested a glass of Mateus Rose and a few cheese and pineapple nibbles there would have been less of a guffaw.
“Are you sure you don’t want a Babycham?” said one local. “On it’s way, vicar,” shouted another.
If, instead, I had ordered a Cotswold Gin with a Fever Tree Tonic I would have been as cool as a hipster’s beard. A decade ago a request for a particular brand of gin would have led the barman to believe I was a lunatic pretending to be a pre-war Colonel in the Raj. But today gin is a sacrament to be fawned over. There are, for example, over 80 different designer gins currently on sale according to the Drinks Business Magazine. That excludes Scruff Gin made by Toby Fairbrother in the Archers, but includes Cotswold Gin distilled with “nine carefully considered botanicals”.
“Knowing your cucumber from your liquorice botanicals is now akin to knowing your merlot from your shiraz,” reported the Times earlier this year. That’s as maybe, but I would just as soon drink supermarket own brand cooking gin as any of the fancy new breeds. A spirit is drunk for the buzz not the bouquet.
Denne historien er fra November 2017-utgaven av Cotswold Life.
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Denne historien er fra November 2017-utgaven av Cotswold Life.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Gloucestershire After The War
Discovering the county’s Arts and Crafts memorials of the First World War
THE WILD SIDE OF Moreton-in-Marsh
The days are getting shorter but there’s plenty of reasons to be cheerful, says Sue Bradley, who discovers how a Cotswolds town is becoming more wildlife-friendly and pots up some bulbs for an insect-friendly spring display
Mr Ashbee would approve
In the true spirit of the Arts & Crafts Movement, creativity has kept the Chipping Campden community ticking over during lockdown
The Cotswolds at war
These might be peaceful hills and vales, but our contribution to the war effort was considerable
Trust in good, local food
‘I’ve been following The Country Food Trust’s activities with admiration since it was founded’
Why Cath is an open book
Cath Kidston has opened up almost every nook and cranny of her Cotswold idyll in a new book, A Place Called Home. Katie Jarvis spoke to Cath ahead of her appearance at this year’s Stroud Book Festival STROUD BOOK FESTIVAL – THIS YEAR FREE AND ONLINE: NOVEMBER 4-8
From the Cotswolds to the world
Most people know that the Cotswolds have featured in a fair few Hollywood movies and TV series.
The Wild Hunt
In search of the legendary King Herla in the Malvern Hills
Fighting spirit amid the flowers
Tracy Spiers visits Warwick, a beautiful town that is open for business and ready to welcome visitors
Final journey
Cheltenham author and volunteer on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway (GWSR), Nicolas Wheatley, recounts the fascinating story of funeral trains