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Surrey distillery launches Chimes Vermouth
The Surrey Copper Distillery has released its second Charles Dickens-inspired expression – Chimes English Extra Dry Vermouth.
Chimes English Extra Dry Vermouth taps into the trend for English vermouths
The Cranleigh-based distillery was launched by husband-and-wife team Dr Christopher Smart and professor Katherine Smart in 2017.
The new vermouth follows the release of Copperfield London Dry Gin in June this year, which is inspired by Dickens’ novel David Copperfield.
Bottled at 15% abv, Chimes English Extra Dry Vermouth is a blend of Surrey-made Sauvignon Blanc and distilled spirit infusion made with 12 botanicals.
Botanicals include wormwood, lemon peel, bitter orange, rosemary, sage, ginger, coriander, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, cardamom and cubeb berries.
“For us it was essential that the quality and character of the English wine (which is a key component of the blend) would be enhanced, rather than dominated by the botanicals,” said Katherine Smart.
“We conducted experiments with various grape varieties and Sauvignon Blanc gave the best overall result.”
The expression is named after Dickens’ 1844 book The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In.
Chimes English Extra Dry Vermouth taps into the “growing trend for high-end English vermouths” – last year English wine maker Bolney Wine Estate launched a red vermouth produced in Sussex.
The recipe for the vermouth is inspired by descriptions of 18th century Turin (Piedmont) vermouths found in various archives and recipes for aromatised spirits from Ambrose Cooper’s book The Complete Distiller.
Chimes English Extra Dry Vermouth has been designed as a sipping vermouth, best served over ice.
Similar to the Copperfield London Dry Gin, the bottle design for the vermouth has been created to emulate an antique book.
Chimes English Extra Dry Vermouth is available at an RRP of £30 (US$39) for a 700ml bottle, as well as in a 50ml format.