James Harrison-Allen left a research job at the House of Commons and moved to Pembrokeshire in 2018, spending two years testing 117 foraged botanicals before launching Still Wild's vermouth in 2020, the first made in Wales. Working from a converted cowshed at Cresselly House near Kilgetty, he hand-picks ingredients such as rock samphire, sea wormwood, meadowsweet, bog myrtle, gorse and elderberry from the surrounding hedgerows, woods and coastline, macerating and distilling each botanical separately. Rather than heating the still, the process lowers pressure so alcohol boils at room temperature, a method intended to preserve delicate aromatics that heat would otherwise drive off. The range has since grown to include a Coastal Gin and an Oyster Shell Vodka, and one of the vermouths placed second in its category at the World Vermouth Awards. Bottles are sold online and through independent stockists across Wales rather than at a shopfront on site.
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