This Country returned this month for an incredible one off special where we found out what happened to Kerry and Martin Mucklowe after their arrest at the end of Series 2

BBC 3 have just released the best deleted scenes from 'The Aftermath' and they're brilliant!

You can watch it here - www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p06mp1r8/this-country-the-aftermath

Lots of hotels from the Cotswolds have made it into The Sunday Times Top 100 list that was published today. 

The Bell at Langford came out on top with it's food, atmosphere and value for money all being recognised. 

Here are all the others that made the list;

The Painswick, Painswick
No 38 The Park, Cheltenham
Foxhill Manor, Broadway
Artist Residence Mason Arms, South Leigh, Nr Whitney
The Kings Head Inn, Bledington
The Fish Hotel, Broadway
Soho Farmhouse, Great Tew
The Lygon Arms, Broadway
Grove Lodge, Bath
Cowley Manor, Nr Cheltenham


You can see the lists that include hotels from our region by clicking the links below.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/travel/100-best-british-hotels-southwest-0cpl60h9t
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/travel/100-best-british-hotels-central-dcgf97mk7

The Akashi Tai sake brewery has been in existence since 1856, based in the fishing town of Akashi in Hyogo Prefecture in western Japan. They have taken the sea bream (‘Tai’) as their symbol because they admire the strength, drive, curiosity and tenacity of this fish that fights for survival in the strong currents of Osaka Bay. Further inland they are blessed with fertile lands and fresh springs that produce good rice.

This is the sake that the Akashi Tai brewmasters reach for at the end of a working day. To qualify as ‘Honjozu’, at least 30% of each rice grain must be milled away before fermentation to remove fats and proteins that can affect the flavour – but in this case, Akashi Tai remove 40%.  Genshu means undiluted – brewers normally add water to temper the alcohol level of a sake – so this one is fuller in body, has a more concentrated flavour and is a bit stronger than most sake (and wine for that matter) at 19% ABV. It has a rich, woody aroma, a velvety texture, a lingering finish and hints of citrus fruits. It is dry and accompanies rich dishes or even cheese and can be served chilled or warm (our preference is chilled, especially in the hotter months).

Bandana Monkey Bar is a cocktail bar at award-winning restaurant with an award-winning bartender at the helm. Dan Morgan (Cheltenham Bartender of the Year 2018) joined Koj in Cheltenham (Cotswold Life’s Best Newcomer 2018 and Cheltenham BID’s Best Restaurant 2018). Although Dan is classically trained and can knock up a mean Martini, Daiquiri or Mai Tai, he now curates an innovative Japanese cocktail list using ingredients such as sake, mirin and shochu. With 15 Japanese whiskies, Bandana Monkey is the best stocked specialist bar in Cheltenham. Pop in for a cocktail and order from the famous buns menu.
Whether it’s food or drinks, we share Akashi Tai’s mantra that adhering to authenticity and tradition doesn’t mean being conservative or non-progressive. To truly respect tradition is to keep it alive, and to do that you sometimes need to be willing to question the status quo and challenge received wisdom. This requires insatiable curiosity and strength of character to follow your own path, but with a profound understanding of and respect for the centuries of tradition and craft that have led to where we are now. In the case of the sea bream, swim against the current because you never know what you might find.

kojcheltenham.co.uk

You may have already heard the news that plans for a brand new five-screen cinema, rooftop bar has been given the go-ahead in Cheltenham. 

The new boutique sofa-style cinema and bar will be located in the vacant former BHS store in the Regent Arcade which closed in 2016. 

This is what it could look like. 

Cotswolds Distillery has secured a nation-wide listing in Waitrose & Partners for its whisky. 

Released in exactly a year ago, the Cotswolds Single Malt Whisky has already accumulated an impressive nine medals and awards in its first 12 months. Each bottle lists the barley variety, harvest year and local Cotswolds farm it was grown on.
 
Described as a rich and fruity single malt, it has been aged in a combination of first-fill ex-Bourbon casks and specially shaved, toasted and re-charred red wine barriques.

The whisky, which recently took Gold at the New York World Wine & Spirits Competition and two stars at the Great Taste Awards, has benefitted from a number of production techniques often considered too costly or inefficient in the wider whisky industry. In particular, the distillery is committed to using only barley grown on local farms in the Cotswolds, and each bottle lists the barley variety, harvest year and farm it was grown on.

The distillery began production of its whisky and gin in 2014 at its small site in Stourton near Shipston-on-Stour. The original business plan was for small-scale production to sell locally but the gin soon won awards and listings in the UK and abroad, and the small company has grown rapidly ever since.

Dan Szor, founder and CEO of Cotswolds Distillery, said “We are delighted that Waitrose & Partners has chosen to list Cotswolds Single Malt Whisky so widely – it’s a wonderful statement of belief in both our distillery and in the wider ‘world whisky’ category. We are passionate about showing consumers that small distilleries like ours, outside the traditional whisky heartlands, are committed to a production ethos that champions the highest quality local ingredients and distilling methods that are driven by quality over cost. It’s painstaking work but we feel we’re really raising the bar, so we’re very proud to show off the incredible results you can achieve, even as a brand-new distillery.”
  
The listing of the Cotswolds Single Malt Whisky coincides with an expansion of Waitrose & Partners’ listing of the distillery’s award-winning Cotswolds Dry Gin. The gin was first listed as part of the retailer’s regional producers scheme, and has been available at 10 stores in and around the Cotswolds area since July 2017 

Featuring lavender grown locally to the distillery, the gin was named Best London Dry in the World Gin Awards 2016 and secured the top Gold Outstanding medal in the IWSC the following year.

www.cotswoldsdistillery.com

Cheltenham was once flooded with burger restaurants. They were literally popping up on every corner. However, within a year, most of them have disappeared. Real Burger has gone. Moody's lasted about two months, sadly it was far too big and in the wrong place and has returned to being The Bierkeller. The Tavern changed their menu for the umpteenth time and moved away from a full American diner menu to a more grown up offering which is really good. Five Guys arrived and will do alright as it's in The Brewery, but it's massively overrated which leaves us just two places, The Bottle of Sauce and Holee Cow. 

The latter opened in 2017 and like most new places, I usually give them a few weeks to settle in before trying them. I never intended to leave it a year. It's in quite a good spot right next to Superdry and near the highly controversial Boots Corner and the incredibly new tacky artificial grass outside Starbucks. What's that about?

The interior is stripped back industrial with exposed brick and wood walls. There's a mix of tables, chairs stools and a long sofa down one f the walls. Hanging bulbs light the place nicely but very much like the menu, it isn't over complicated. 

On the back of your paper place mat you will find  six burgers, eight sides with a couple of monthly specials on a board on the wall. You can double up on each burger if you're that way inclined. The Holee Cow is the house burger, then you have Smokey Bacon & Cheese which is self explanatory, P.I.T.M (Piggy in the Middle) with smoked pulled pork, The Lamburghini, yep you've got it, a lamb kofte patty, The Spicy Clucker, a buttermilk marinated & dredged chicken breast with buffalo hot sauce and their vegetarian option The Bean Bag. All (as singles) are £9 or under and all the ones with a beef patty contains locally sourced West Gloucestershire beef. 

We both chose the Smokey Bacon and cheese (one single and one double) with a side of both Truffle Cheese fries and Loaded Pulled Pork and Jalapeño sweet potato fries. Bacon Cheese Fries, Macaroni Cheese Bites and Chicken Wings are also available. 

The brioche buns were lightly toasted, cheese was dripping out over the pattys and the bacon was properly crispy and as smokey as described. The fries were both superb with generous amounts of toppings. I can't remember lunch ever tasting so good. 

It's like survival of the fittest for burger restaurants in Cheltenham and these guys are in fine physical shape. Find me a better burger in town... I'll wait. 

www.holeecowburgers.co.uk

The wait is almost over. The new John Lewis & Partners Cheltenham opens this week and we popped into today and had a mooch around. 

Shoppers will find over 49,000 products from more than a thousand brands as well as John Lewis’s first ever Men’s Personal Styling Lounge and The Discovery Room that will be showcasing workshops, talks and events every day. 

The new store opens to the public this Thursday 18th October at 10am. 

The readers of Condé Nast Traveler have rated their top hotels in the United Kingdom, outside of London, and included three from the Cotswolds in their top 10. 

The Lygon Arms in Broadway was highest ranked at number three with The Gainsborough Bath Spa (4th) and Barnsley House near Cirencester (7th). 

Click HERE to see the top 10.

Cheltenham Racecourse welcomes back National Hunt Racing for the 2018/19 this October and what better way to celebrate than with a gin cocktail named after Gold Cup winner Native River from the wonderful Cheltenham Gin. 

Here's the recipe;

​25ml Cheltenham gin
25ml Cointreau
Top with Spiced Orange Ginger Ale
Orange Segment to Garnish
Rosemary to Garnish

cheltenham-gin.co.uk

Click HERE for all the Cheltenham Racecourse fixtures

Today marks the start of Seafood Week and where better to spend at the brilliant Hook at The Fish Hotel. 

To mark the event, they have created the Ultimate Seafood Platter to share as well as eight awesome daily specials. 

​Check out how they're celebrating below or visit www.thefishhotel.co.uk/eat/hook-by-martin-burge. If you are yet to visit Hook then we highly recommend booking!

A surprisingly dry wine produced from grapes on Siegerrebe vines that are most suited to the climate in England.

Little Oak Vineyard, located near Chipping Campden, was started by Steve Wilson and first planted in 2006 with 400 Siegerrebe vines. 2016 was their best year to date with fantastic quality grapes, a great yield and almost perfect sugar and acidity readings on the days the grapes were harvested.
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For over a decade, The Ebrington Arms has been one of the most highly regarded pubs in the Cotswolds. In July 2017, the pub was crowned as the UK's number one village pub by The Times in 2017, as well as featuring their Top 30 UK Pubs for 2019. They have held 2 AA Rosettes for 8 consecutive years and were awarded the County's Dining Pub of the Year 2019 in The Good Pub Guide. 

As well as being a great place to eat it is also a wonderful place to stay with five luxury ensuite rooms.

They are also home to the Yubbington Brewing Company that produces some wonderful home-brewed craft ales. 

www.theebringtonarms.co.uk

Kuba Winkowski, head chef at the Feathered Nest in Nether Westcote, has been crowned the Craft Guild’s National Chef of the Year at The Restaurant Show at Olympia in London.

Following in the footsteps of some of the industry's biggest names such as Gordon Ramsay, Winkowski wowed the judges with his Lobster starter, Yorkshire grouse main and  sticky toffee with lemon, clotted cream dessert. 

​The award, judged by many of the UK's top chefs including Tom Kerridge and Clare Smyth, was based on theirindividual performance on the day, as they create their three-course menu in two hours in front of a live audience. 

www.thefeatherednestinn.co.uk

Are you heading to the slopes this winter? Well you can leave your fluorescent ​salopettes and North Face jacket at home as Cirencester based Barrington Ayre have got your snow style sorted. 

Using fabric and a design of your choice, the bespoke tweed ski suits are waterproof and breathable with full working shoulder pleats to allow for full movement as well as special arm pit pleats to create even more movement whilst leaving room for air to circulate inside the jacket keeping you comfortable and dry all day.

The extended rear of the jacket also provides added security and comfort and with the lapels being able to button up around the neck you will keep dry and warm even in the wildest white outs!

The trousers have extended fishtail back to keep any air or snow out and the wider bottoms fit perfectly around the boots.

The tweed ski suit will set you back a tidy £1,250 but you will definitely look the most stylish on the piste and for après-ski.

barringtonayre.co.uk/products/tweed-ski-suit

The final 25 restaurants in The Times' Critics Top 100 have been announced this morning and three more from the Cotswolds have made the list. 

The list sees critics Marina O’Loughlin and Giles Coren choosing their favourites from all over the UK. 

The Bell at Sapperton
Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Cracking pub in a proper quiet little Gloucestershire village. Been going on and off for years. Used to love picnics on a rug in the front garden, but they have tables now (posh!). Most recently thrilled by a burrata and heritage-tomato salad, flat-iron chimichurri chicken, top-flight kids’ burgers and pints of Pliny the Elderflower. Get it? Pliny the . . . oh, go away. 
bellsapperton.co.uk
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You might have seen in this weekend's edition of The Times where critics Giles Coren and Marina O’Loughlin chose their top 100 eating spots in the UK. 

Four of Giles' choices are right here in the Cotswolds and we have listed them below with the extract from The Times.
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​The Hare, Milton-under-Wychwood, Oxfordshire
Lovely pub where the star is the daily changing fish board, from which I’ve had excellent gravlax of Scottish salmon with roasted beetroot and horseradish crème fraîche, brilliantly crisp and clean monkfish cheeks breaded and deep-fried with a marvellous tartare sauce, and a stunningly good fillet of black bream, huge, crisped on the skin side, perfectly sweet and moist, on top of a big tangle of crab linguine. It could easily have fed two and at £16.50 puts London portions to shame.
themiltonhare.co.uk
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The Bell Inn, Langford, Oxfordshire
Best little food pub in the world? Probably. They put a pizza oven in mostly for the pizza, but blackened, crackling flatbread running with melty marrowfat and scattered with parsley fair blew me away — and when I rolled it up around some slices of the exquisite aged roasted sirloin and drizzled over it some dark, sticky gravy, I was in actual heaven. Walk it off in the graveyard next door — there’s an 8th-century rood relief on which the Christ appears to have enjoyed his lunch so much, his head has fallen off 
thebelllangford.com
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Russell’s Fish and Chips, Broadway, Worcestershire
Call it twee, gentrified, whatever words you feel the need to use when denigrating a rural market town that has decided not to be depressing and horrid, but I like Broadway. And this excellent modern chip shop is one of the best things in it. There are restrained quantities of jolly nautical tat, blackboards revealing daily specials and a separate board that announced, “The potatoes we are chipping are marfona” — not a variety I know, but I am quite certain that anywhere offering to name your chip potato variety will probably feed you very nicely. And it did. This is absolutely top-quality fish and chips, with haddock and cod offered, as well as plaice either breaded or grilled, whole tail scampi, fish cakes or fish finger sandwich with fantastic chips (dry, firm, nutty), a paper pot of good tartare, smashed peas and a lemon wedge. A big old-school prawn cocktail for £4.95 was also beautifully done.
russellsfishandchips.co.uk
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