Jeremy Clarkson is finally selling wine at his Cotswolds pub after relaxing a rule he has enforced since it opened. The 65-year-old former Top Gear presenter, who owns The Farmer's Dog in Oxfordshire, initially vowed to serve exclusively British items, which excluded wine. Now, the pub has introduced its own British wine range, Knollbury Fort.
British Wine Makes a Comeback
In a statement, the pub said: 'There was a time when English wine was like a child's recorder playing; you wanted to like it, but it wasn't very good. Fortunately, that time has gone. Thanks to warmer summers and expert farming, Britain grows excellent grapes and makes brilliant wine with them.' The new wine range aims to champion British farming and prove that the country now produces world-class wine.
This follows the introduction of a 100 per cent British ketchup in August 2025, produced by Condimaniac using ingredients sourced entirely from the UK. The company's boss, Kier Kemp, noted that Clarkson's Diddly Squat team requested the sauce urgently, leading to the creation of two sauces, one thickened with carrots and onion due to the lack of purely British tomato puree.
Clarkson's British-Only Ethos
When the pub first opened in August 2024, Clarkson declared: 'The menu changes – it’s whatever we’ve got. There’s no Coca-Cola, no coffee. Other pubs do coffee. We do British food. Everything that you consume in here – every single thing – even the black pepper and the sugar, is grown by British farmers.' The pub, located in Asthall and formerly known as The Windmill, was purchased by Clarkson for less than £1 million.
The opening was not without controversy, as complaints arose about the absence of prices on the menu, leading some to suspect higher costs. When a fan joked on social media about needing to remortgage a home for a round of drinks, Clarkson bluntly responded: 'It’s £5.50 a pint.'
