On Tuesday we were the official transport provider for the Guild of Food Writers on their foodie tour of the Cotswolds.
We’re very fortunate here at Go Cotswolds to have an ‘office’ that normally consists of rolling hills, beautiful scenery and picture postcard villages but on Tuesday this was also coupled with amazing food and drink as well.
It really was a work day in the loosest sense of the term!
The Go Cotswolds minibus outside the Kingham Plough
The thirteen guests we transported – all members of the Guild with interesting sounding roles ranging from writers to broadcasters to reviewers and bloggers – were treated to a tour and tasting at Upton Smokery, cheese tasting at Daylesford Organic Farm and a tour/tasting at The Cotswolds Distillery in addition to lunch at the Kingham Plough.
This was certainly my kind of day out and reaffirmed why The Cotswolds is renowned the country over for its quality and different produce!
Upton Smokery
Upton Smokery specialise in smoked meat, game and fish. We visited the smoker itself and tasted their smoked goods of which the potted shrimp was comfortably my favourite. If you can get your hands on any Smoked by US produce then do so – it’s immense!
The Cotswolds Dry Gin & Tonic aperitif at the Kingham Plough. Sadly I couldn’t have one as I was driving!
From here we headed for a magnificent lunch at the Kingham Plough. Chef Operator at the Kingham Plough is Emily Watkins who has previously worked with Heston Blumenthal at the Fat Duck at Bray and competed in the Great British Menu in 2014 which she won with her fish course.
You can certainly understand why she and the Kingham Plough are both so highly regarded – the whole experience was absolutely brilliant and it was quite comfortably one of the best meals I’ve ever had.
From here we headed just around the corner to Daylesford Organic. Sadly for me I missed this one (I had to spend some time in the minibus on the phone doing some actual work!) but from the amount of time that our guests spent inside and the smiles on their faces when they returned you could sense that it was another successful visit.
Alex telling us about the distilling process at the Cotswolds Distillery
To finish the afternoon we darted through the Oxfordshire Cotswolds past the Rollright Stones Circle to the Cotswolds Distillery which is located in the beautiful rural location of Stourton.
This was my second visit to the distillery having met Rachel (PR & marketing guru) & Alex (head distiller) and had a brief tour back in February. Their enthusiasm for all things Cotswolds distillery is infectious and you can understand why – it really is an impressive place. Especially considering they only started distilling there less than a year ago! The whisky won’t be ready for a few years yet but they’re already rightly receiving great acclaim for their unique Cotswolds dry gin.
Prior to their return to Kingham Station our visitors were treated to a goodie box for the journey home by local personal chef company Gluts & Gluttony. They really did have a day full of treats in the Cotswolds. And so did I to be honest!
Twitter handles
Upton Smokery – @uptonsmokery
The Kingham Plough – @KinghamPlough
Daylesford Organic – @daylesfordfarm
Cotswolds Distillery – @Cotswoldistill
Gluts & Glutony – @gluts_gluttony
The Guild of Food Writers – @GuildFoodWriter
Picture gallery
