Enjoy a drink in the drawing room, panelled room, on the terrace, in your room or while dining. We keep the more popular spirits complemented by Fever Tree and Fentiman’s mixers, premium imported bottled lager, local bottled ales and cider and a selection of wines to savour on their own or with a meal.
Our cellar and bar are evolving entities. Their evolution—just as in nature—is a matter of natural selection. Contrary to what you might expect the house does not have a large cellar. The cellar didn’t exist at all until modern times when it was added to make space for boilers. The boilers do not provide a good environment for wine, so we are limited with space. We offer 17 wines from around the world including English wine. If you like a particular style of wine, please ask and we will be able to steer you towards one of our wines that hopefully favours your palate.
If you enjoy Calvados, then do try the Somerset Cider Brandy. It always puzzled me why England never produced an apple spirit to compete with Calvados and then I found it. Apparently, apple brandy used to be a huge thing in times past and it would be great to see a resurgence. The UK has the largest per-capita consumption of cider in the world and the West Country is renowned for its production. We offer Thatcher’s Gold, a highly popular dry cider from their farm just over 20 miles away.
Gin lovers will appreciate the range from our local distillery – 6 O’Clock Gin. We stock most if not all of their range, which is also available from Waitrose. The distillery organises tours of their site so if you are interested let me know and I will try to arrange it for you.
Continuing our support of local industry we have chosen Bristol-based award-winning Bath Ales as our house ale supplier. Their signature ‘Gem’ amber ale uses traditional British malts which balances the soft fruits and bittersweet caramel with a soft, smooth bitterness. Bath Ales’ ‘Wild Hare’ is a fresh citrus, hoppy, golden pale ale and perfect for the summer months. Whereas, I firmly believe that as a country we produce the best ales and cider, I think that our European cousins have long produced the best lagers and so I tend to stock Budweiser Budwar.
Each week we will be featuring one or more house cocktails to be enjoyed before supper. These will have a seasonal aspect, so expect long refreshers in the summer months, maybe even a pitcher? Spirits (other than those in a ‘cocktail’) are measured in units of 25ml for a single and 50 ml for a double measure.
Soft drinks and fruit juices are also available as standalone drinks or mixers. We have chosen Fentiman’s and Fever Tree for the bulk of our soft drinks as their products outshine their competitors in quality and ultimately, taste (apart from Fentiman’s Curiosity Cola, which tastes like it was made in a Sodastream and is best avoided. Curious why they made it!).
We do not have a dedicated bar—drinks are available as a service. Please be patient if that service is a little slower than you would get in a pub. Interestingly, ‘bars’ are so out of fashion now since everyone is used to being served drinks where they are sat. I think I will develop an app soon for online ordering!
Please note that only food and alcoholic drinks purchased at Old Church Farm can be consumed here. If you wish to bring your own wines there is a corkage fee of £18.00 per bottle of fizz and £14.50 for still wines.