This Norfolk vodka has been named the best in the UK

Wild Knight’s ultra-premium English vodka won the gold award at the 2020 World Vodka Awards – setting it as the best in the country.

The distillery, Founding Drinks, is run by husband-and-wife team Steph and Matt Brown, who said the win was “fantastic” for both them and the company.

Mrs Brown said: “It’s wonderful news. When we entered we didn’t think we’d take home gold but it’s absolutely fantastic – we’re so pleased.

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“The vodka won in the varietal category which means its distilled to have a scent and taste reminiscent of its base – which in this case is barley.”

The Beachamwell-based pair have had a busy lockdown, having also launched a cherry gin and seen their online sales quadruple from their figures from the entirety of 2019.

Mrs Brown said: “Prior to the pandemic we did a lot of business with retailers – Jarrold was our biggest customer for example. Obviously with the pandemic everything shut down overnight and suddenly we had absolutely no orders coming in.

“So we thought we better get creative when it came to online. We initially launched offers like free delivery but then it got us thinking about what our customers really wanted. As a result we started putting together bundles of three spirits with tonics to enjoy them with, for example.

“It’s ended up being so busy that since March we’ve already done four times what we sold online for all of last year.”

Wild Knight’s Debauchery morello cherry gin has also been a hit, with the pair already looking at their next launch.

“You can never stay still in this business. We think the next launch will be a rum, which we’ve been working on for a few years already,” she said.

“We’ve had a couple of people try it. Ian Burrell who is the world rum ambassador has tried it and thinks it’s really lovely. We just need to wait for some new stills and for Matt to say it’s ready, then we can launch that.”