6th generation farmers, 1st generation distillers

01 May 2021

The Distillery

The ambition of farm diversification was behind the entrepreneurial decision for brothers Ed & Charlie to set up The Wood Brothers Distillery in the 200-year-old stone granary barn on their farm near Bampton on the edge of the Cotswolds. Historically the farm has produced mushrooms, farmed livestock, & grown arable crops, & as a family-run farm, the brothers have been actively involved from a young age. However, after working in the distillery business for several years, with unprecedented knowledge of the systems & setup involved, Ed set his eyes on the old barn for their new distilling venture. Together with his brother, Charlie, they started the task of converting the old barn. They ordered equipment, but for the most part, the conversion, design, & installation was a project created & completed by them alone. They ran the first spirit off the still early in 2018. The arable land on the farm produces grains. These allow the distillery to claim its status as Single Estate, something rarely found in distilleries in the UK. By creating the base spirit, the brothers can control the products from seed to glass. The extensive history of the family farm is evident in the branding & design of the bottles. The complex weaving of copper piping takes you on a journey & gives insight into every part of this history. With the brothers’ ethos of keeping the product local & drawing on the farms past, the spirits produced are uniquely personal.

The Spirits

When milled, mashed & fermented, the soft English winter wheat is grown on the farm creates a pure, well-rounded base spirit. This can retain its subtle grain notes when distilled to create Single Estate Wood Bros Vodka & Gin. As the distillery grows, further products will also be developed, producing a full range of British, Single Estate spirits.

Single Estate Gin

Following the age-old route of the one-shot distilling technique, our Wood Brothers Single Estate Gin combines home-grown herbs, lavender, rosemary & dill with traditional gin botanicals, such as juniper berries, angelica root & citrus peels. This is run through our copper pot still, with the only additional additive after the distilling process being pure water which blends it down to the perfect bottling strength of 44% ABV.

Single Estate Vodka

Our single estate Vodka was the first spirit to come off the still using our soft English winter wheat. We use our handcrafted base spirit & run it through our Carter Head Still with its 9.5m column containing 42 copper plates. Only pure water is then added to blend it down to the perfect bottling strength of 40% ABV.

Slow & Damson Vodka

Wood Brothers Sloe & Damson Vodka liqueur is made with sloes & damsons foraged from the hedgerows on our farm, stepped in our winter wheat vodka & aged in barrels.