The Hidden Still at Cotswolds Distillery: A new evening bar bringing English sparkling wine into the spotlight

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At golden hour, when the light softens across the North Cotswolds and the day begins to ease into evening, a new kind of destination has opened its doors at Cotswolds Distillery.

The Hidden Still is the distillery’s latest evolution — a Friday and Saturday evening bar experience designed not around tours or tastings, but around atmosphere, conversation, and a slower rhythm of drinking.

Set within the distillery’s wider visitor site in Stourton, the space sits alongside its warehouse, café, shop and terrace, yet feels distinctly different in tone.

Where daytime visits focus on production and process, The Hidden Still is built for lingering evenings: cocktails in hand, soft light, and a menu shaped for unhurried summer drinking.

A new kind of distillery experience

From 5.00pm to 9.00pm every Friday and Saturday until the end of September, the bar shifts the distillery’s identity into something more social and seasonal.

Guests are greeted with a concise but considered menu: house cocktails built on signature gin and whisky, long spritz-style serves, a rotating slushie, and a selection of wines, beers and low- or no-alcohol options. It is familiar in format, but deliberately refined in execution.

Behind the programme is Head of Mixology Ollie Morris, whose long-standing role at the distillery has shaped much of its cocktail direction. His approach here leans into clarity and balance — drinks designed for warm evenings rather than technical showpieces.

But The Hidden Still is not simply a cocktail bar extension. It is also the setting for a wider seasonal collaboration series that places English sparkling wine at its centre.

English sparkling wine, reimagined

Across June, July and August 2026, three producers will each take over the bar’s signature spritz serve in month-long residencies, bringing their own interpretation of English fizz into the Cotswolds setting.

June opens with Hambledon Vineyards, whose Classic Cuvée brings crisp orchard fruit and structure to the spritz format.

July follows with Black Chalk, known for small-batch precision and bright, contemporary acidity.

August concludes the series with Flint Vineyards, offering a more textured, mineral expression that suits the softer edge of late summer.

Rather than positioning English sparkling wine as a standalone pour, the residencies weave it into cocktail culture — blended, lengthened, and reinterpreted through a spritz lens that aligns with the distillery’s own botanical-led approach.

It is a subtle shift in format, but a notable one: sparkling wine moving from celebratory bottle service into the everyday language of the cocktail bar.

The Wild Spritz and a countryside aperitivo moment

Alongside the residency programme, the bar also introduces the Cotswolds Wild Spritz, a bittersweet aperitivo created for relaxed summer drinking.

Built around bright citrus, soft florals and layered botanicals, it is designed to sit comfortably between aperitif and long drink — served over ice with soda, tonic, or paired with sparkling wine for a lighter spritz expression.

It reflects a broader shift in the distillery’s approach: spirits not only as products to be poured neat or in classic cocktails, but as flexible components in longer, more conversational drinks.

A space designed for evenings

What defines The Hidden Still most clearly, however, is not the drinks list but the setting.

The opening night revealed a space shaped for transition — from daylight to dusk, from structured tasting to informal gathering. Guests move between the bar, terrace and seating areas, with cocktails designed to match that pace rather than interrupt it.

There is a deliberate softness to the experience: lighting that draws focus inward, service that encourages pause, and a layout that prioritises flow over formality.

It is, in many ways, a continuation of the distillery’s evolution from production site to visitor destination. But it also signals something more specific — a confidence in becoming a place where people do not just learn about spirits, but spend time with them.

A growing destination in the Cotswolds

As the first full-scale distillery of its kind in the region, Cotswolds Distillery has steadily expanded its offer beyond production into hospitality and experience.

The Hidden Still is the latest expression of that trajectory — a seasonal bar that sits somewhere between rural escape and modern cocktail destination, with English sparkling wine playing an increasingly visible role in its identity.

If the opening night is any indication, it is also a space designed to be revisited rather than simply visited — a summer rhythm rather than a one-off event.

And in that sense, The Hidden Still feels less like a launch, and more like a new habit forming in the Cotswolds evenings.