Product of: United Kingdom

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The house vermouth of The Ethicurean restaurant in Somerset, The Collector is made with contributions from foragers, chefs and mixologists. The vermouth was developed over three years of experimentation and first served in the restaurant in 2012, then made generally available in November 2014.

The Collector vermouth is made with 20 different botanicals grown in the restaurant’s walled garden, including bay, rosemary, sage, wormwood and yarrow. Foraged ingredients such as rowan berries and scots pine are gathered from the Mendip Hills and countryside close to the restaurant.

These are used to make botanical tinctures using spirit distilled from organic cider apples grown in Hereford. These tinctures are then blended with a handmade caramel made from English sugar and a white wine made from 100% Malvasia grapes, grown and fermented by the Sartori family in Italy’s Veneto region. This small batch production takes place in a converted Victorian glasshouse overlooking the walled garden and the hills beyond.

The vermouth is hand-bottled and numbered and presented in a crystal Vinolok bottle.

Review and Tasting

Sampled on 06/02/2016

Appearance:

(sample #148) Clear, coppery amber with burnished copper glints.

Aroma:

Blackcurrant boiled sweets with peach, green apple skin, grapes, faint sage and menthol.

Taste:

Berry fruit, red grapes, stewed apples, apricots, boiled sweets and honeyed sweetness, balanced by wormwood and gentian bitterness. Notes of dried citrus fruit, roasted chestnuts and marmalade.

Aftertaste:

Stewed fruits and berries with marmalade, honeyed sweetness and wormwood bitter notes.

Overall:

A very fruity approachable vermouth with distinctive berry, stewed orchard fruit, marmalade and wormwood herbal complexity.