EXPERIENCE THE AUTHENTIC TASTE OF STILL WILD. COLD DISTILLED WITH hand foraged, NATURAL BOTANICALS from pembrokeshire

HAND PICKED BOTANICALS

Our hedgerows, woods and coastlines are brimming with incredible flavours and aromas. As efficiency became more important many of these distinctive ingredients fell out of favour. Replaced with cheap, imported spices and easily grown, farmed cultivars.

It takes time, but our wild surroundings can offer us smells and tastes impossible to imagine without experiencing them. From heady smells of Elderflower in the spring, the sweet almost vanilla scent of Meadowsweet to the rich savouriness of Dulse.

At Still Wild we harness and capture these wild flavours to create a distinctive and well balanced drink.

COLD DISTILLED

Traditional distillation heats the botanicals to the boiling temperature of ethanol (80°C). This temperature often degrades the more fragile aromas from the more delicate botanicals. By reducing the pressure in the boiling chamber we can boil ethanol at room temperature, thus preserving all of natures flavours.

PEMBROKESHIRE

Our distillery is situated in the Pembrokeshire National Park, the UK’s only coastal national park. It’s this location and terroir that sculpts much of the flavour of our drink.

The diverse landscape gives us a broad range of habitats and a large variety of plants. Seaweeds from clean coastal waters, fragrant Sea Wormwood from the inland Cleddau Estaury or bright heather from the Preseli Mountains. Alongside untouched woods and gnarled, old hedgerows, Pembrokeshire is a foragers dream.

Hogweed

Heracleum Sphondylium - This overlooked native botanical is highly aromatic with a warm spicy taste. Think cardamon crossed with orange zest. Toasting the seeds really brings out the flavour! A common site across the hedgerows of Britain, most people don't look at Hogweed twice. Interestingly it plays an important part in Persian cuisine.

Rock Samphire

Crithmum Maritimum - Rock Samphire used to be a luxury. Shakepeare writes about the dangers of picking this once highly valuable item from the cliffside in King Lear. It's complicated flavour can be overpowering in its raw form, distilling completely transforms it.

Sweet Woodruff

Galium Odoratum - This shade loving plant can often be found covering woodland floors. It's been used as a herb for centuries and it's only recently that we've started to forget about it. In it's fresh form it has an unremarkable smell, but when its dried it suddenly comes into its own. Smells like a mixture of honey, vanilla and hay.

Bog Myrtle

Myrica gale - Another unique fragrance thats hard to describe. A heavy fragrance, somewhere between lavender and rosemary. An interesting bitterness, unwanted in most applications but positively encouraged in a Vermouth.

Elderberry

Sambucus nigra - More well know earlier in the year for Elderflowers, the berries of the Elder tree add richness and depth to our Sweet Vermouth. The berries are infused into spirit and left undistilled. Gives a deep, rich colour and often leads to stained fingers whilst foraging!

Sea Wormwood

Artemisia maritima - Only discovered by our distiller recently, Sea Wormwood holds a special place at Still Wild. It grows on the Estuary between Lawrenny and Cresswell Quay. Highly fragrant, dry and bitter. One of the three wild wormwoods we use.

Gooseberry

Ribes uva-crispa - Grown in the UK for centuries there is some debate as to whether wild gooseberries are escaped ancient cultivars, or if ancient cultivars came from wild gooseberries. Regardless of this wild food chicken/egg conundrum, these round balls of acidity help balance our Extra Dry Vermouth.

Meadowsweet

Filipendula Ulmaria - This plant loves ancient hedgerows and damp soil. Something we have an abundance of in Pembrokeshire! Like Wild Garlic and Mugwort, I often smell Meadowsweet before I see it. An almost overpowering smell of marzipan and vanilla.