"Monkhide Country Wines" started in the year 2000 as a result of a growing hobby. After a succession of drunken friends had told us words to the effect, "thish shtuff ish sho good you should shell it!", we decided to give it a go.

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Our first batch of fruit wine, (raspberry) was a staggering 57 bottles and we sold it all within a week through two retailers. Encouraged by the early signs, we increased production as quickly as we could and we found a near insatiable demand. In 2002, we started making liqueurs, (Lemon vodka was our first) and we found the demand for these even greater than for the wines.

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The business is now known simply as "Monkhide" in recognition of the fact that we produce liqueurs as well as country wines. In recent years our efforts have been recognised with the acquisition of several prestigious national awards.

In 2006, our Red Plum Liqueur not only won a Silver Great Taste Award, it also won a Gold medal at the UK Fruit wine awards and just for good measure was awarded the accolade "Best Liqueur".

Since then, we have won Gold Great Taste Awards for our Pear Brandy, Maple Whisky, Sloe Gin and Lazy Sunshine (banana rum). In addition, we have won Silver Great taste Awards for Lime Vodka and Apple Brandy.

We are a family owned and run business. For this reason, we are proud of the fact that we can give a personal service to every customer we deal with. We would love to meet you either at Farmers' markets or at the shows we attend. Please introduce yourself and tell us what we do well, and what we can improve.

Lorraine and "Digger" Digweed, wine and liqueur makers