Your Welcome Basket
Preparing for a holiday can be stressful and tiresome at times. With endless lists of what to pack, unruly family members to corral, and travel arrangements of almost unfathomable logistic complexity to organise, it is no wonder you can feel exhausted when you finally arrive. Which is not the point of a holiday.
To help with this, we want you to feel that when you arrive, your long day’s labour is finally ended. So we provide our guests with a complimentary welcome pack full of essentials (plus a few luxuries) to spare you the hassle of a trip to the shops just when you’ve finally got here. To give you a true taste of luxury self-catering in the Cotswolds, the basket contains produce sourced only from local farms and businesses.
Depending on the size of your cottage, you can have up to three bottles of this superb Lalande de Pomerol to wash down a quick supper the first night you arrive. If, on the other hand, you have decided to wait until breakfast for a taste of Bruern’s incomparable eggs, bacon and sausages, you can toast the dawn with our vintage Monopole Champagne instead of opting for claret. To round off the list of options, you can also eschew both of the above in favour of another of our family favourites, namely Montagny 2017, a delicious “Premier Cru” “Grand Vin” white burgundy. You can specify how many of each when you book online.
While we realise the day-to-day necessities (washing up liquid and laundry powder etc.) represent the essentials, we think these added personal touches are almost as important, as they will start your holiday in the best way possible, and so often if a holiday starts well, it will end well.
Champagne
Heidsieck & C° Monopole, now owned by Vranken and Pommery is one of the oldest firms in the Champagne region. This 2009 vintage is soft and rich, with hints of citrus, apple and subtle vanilla. Perfect with canapes.
Esprit de Lussac 2019
Lussac is one of Saint-Émilion’s satellite appellations – and one of the only ones considered of high enough quality to use ‘Saint-Émilion’ in its name.
It’s mainly Merlot, with some Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon to give it great structure. It’s super-smooth and silky, packed with black fruit flavours. Blackcurrants. Plums. Cherries. It’s really delicious claret – and perfect for drinking young.
Mâcon-Lugny Louis-Latour
The village of Lugny is located high up in the South of the Mâcon region. It has a great reputation for its white wines which has made Mâcon famous. With flavours of white fruits and honey, Mâcon-Lugny carries aromas of honey and acacia, with exceptional roundness in the mouth. Matched perfectly with a charcuterie board.
Paddock Farm Sausages and Bacon
Paddock Farm is home to the largest herd of Tamworth pigs in the country. The animals live wholesome, stress-free lives in fields and pastures. They genuinely care about their wellbeing, and are involved at each stage of their lives to make sure everything is done right, from birth through to butchery.
Paddock Farm supply many of the country’s top chefs with well raised, properly aged, respectfully butchered meats.
Billy's Eggs
Billy’s Free Range Eggs is a small family run business based at Kiln Bank Farm, just outside the beautiful Stow on the Wold in the heart of the Cotswold countryside. They have just over 5000 hens happily roaming free in the woods behind the farm. Focusing on quality and freshness the demand for these amazing eggs has been so great that they were able to increase the number of hens that they look after.
Cotswold Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil
R-Oil is a pure and natural oil with a distinct nutty flavour. Rapeseed, grown and ripened in the heart of the Cotswolds by the Campbell family, is harvested and cold-pressed on their farm near Stow-on-the-Wold.
R-Oil is a versatile oil, ideal for deep and shallow frying, which can also be used to enhance and add flavour to salad dressings and stir-fries.
Bensons Apple Juice
Bensons are a family of fruit farmers from the Cotswolds. They craft juice based goodies, which are refreshingly honest and naturally delicious.
They never use concentrates, and only pick the best natural ingredients for their juices.
Mor Bakery
Mor are an independent sourdough bakery and kitchen based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Chipping Campden and Chipping Norton.
MOR was founded by David who was driven by his passion for baking and his love of the bold and flavourful.
Kitchen Garden foods
The cooks of country markets bring together residents with a passion for cooking and help them sell their homemade produce to local communities. They aim to encourage the public to discover the diversity and deliciousness of local British produce.
The preserves have sharp, sweet and tangy flavours, perfect for morning toast or afternoon tea. Each Jar details the name and location of the producer, a wonderful insight to where it has been made.
Cotswold Baking Lemon Cake
Using local and free range ingredients, Cotswold Baking produce a variety of delicious homemade cakes.
You will have one of these lovely cakes, which will be perfect for elevenses or an afternoon tea break.
Holmleigh Dairy Milk
Quality Jersey and Guernsey milk produced by a local farming family on a small Cotswold farm, where each of the cows are known by name.
Holmleigh farm in a traditional Cotswold style, growing barley for cattle feed and growing grass for grazing and hay. They don’t use any blanket sprays of herbicide or pesticides.
Black Cow Cheese
Godsell’s Cheese is a range of hand made cheeses made at Church Farm, in the Gloucestershire village of Leonard Stanley, using milk from their own herd of cows and one other local farm all the ingredients are locally sourced.
Traditionally made using pasteurized half skimmed milk it has a fresh, sometimes nutty taste, slightly more acidic than Double but very moorish.
Holmleigh Dairy Butter
Churned on the Holmleigh farm using fresh Jersey & Guernsey double cream.
Holmleigh do not homogenise as they believe this unnecessary process can break down the natural protein found in milk products.