Our Favourite Dorset Drink Brands

Dive into the world of Dorset drink brands and you’ll quickly discover a flourishing coastal assemblage of dynamic entrepreneurs, enchanting stories of vision and growth and a refreshingly established foundation of familiar names and faces.

Dorset drink brands are growing in popularity across the globe. And rightly so.

Indeed, it was only last month that our client English Oak Vineyard proudly received their Dorset Environmental Award at the 2019 Dorset Business awards, celebrating their commitment to sustainability and the preservation of our world-famous Dorset countryside.

As such, and with 2020 bound to see many more brands emerging from our beautiful South Coast, we’ve decided to seize the opportunity to pay homage to five of our favourite Dorset drink brands, starting with our very own client, English Oak Sparkling wine.

#1 English Oak Sparkling Wine

Our client English Oak Vineyard is a boutique, family vineyard nestled in Dorset, near Poole. Producing a unique collection of four multi-award-winning English quality sparkling wines, English Oak also provides fascinating vineyard tours and offers a beautiful venue for spectacular, unforgettable vineyard weddings.

Having recently launched the English Oak Vineyard website, we’re proud to be the agency who was chosen to work with English Oak to communicate their zingy brand personality online. It’s a fascinating, beautiful and uplifting place to visit. As a design agency, we, of course, have to mention the textured paper, gold foiling and embossing of the label, all of which position this sparkling wine where it deserves to be – at the top!

#2 Black Cow Vodka

Based in Beaminster, we love Black Cow Vodka for its daring tone of voice, and even more daring concept! Making vodka from… milk?! The legend goes that Genghis Khan was the first person to ask ‘Can you make alcohol out of milk,’ but, breaking their family’s 300 years of cheese-making tradition, Founders Jason and Archie were the first to ‘have a go!’

Black Cow Vodka is now stocked in Harvey Nichols, Fortnum and Mason, Soho House and selected retailers. For a classic British twist, why not try their Black Cow + English Strawberries premium blush vodka? From a packaging design perspective – we, of course, love the clear, milk bottle shape of the Black Cow vodka bottle, with a premium black colour palette – a major design trend for 2020.

#3 Fordington Gin

Fordington Gin is a superb Dorset Gin, created with a unique combination of carefully-sourced botanicals.

Shelf appeal is more important than ever and this Dorset brand has made great use of elegant foiling on its packaging to capture the eye, it’s no surprise this gin was shortlisted by Raymond Blanc for the Great British Food Awards. Born from a love of food, flavours and exploring new tastes, this gin encompasses the rolling green hills of Dorset to the majestic Jurassic coastline flowing tastefully into our festive fishbowl gin glasses.

#4 Eight Arch Brewing Co.

Our Marketing Team recently discovered Eight Arch Brewing Co. – the namesake beer of the eight arches of Julian’s Bridge in Wimborne Minster, Dorset. This brand appeals to our marketers in particular as it’s constantly growing and evolving into new styles to ensure this beer’s customers are never bored. Dorset through and through, Eight Arch hosted their first Beer Festival this Summer, featuring a host of local Dorset bands including ‘2 Go Mad in Dorset’.

Eight Arch’s family of beer products are cleverly named, for example after the Quarter Jack area of Wimborne, but also playfully branded, e.g. ‘Charlie Doesn’t Play Piano’ and ‘Right Platform Wrong Station.’ The packaging is incredibly contemporary and cool, simple yet high-end – with instant shelf appeal. One personal favourite is peanut butter beer!

#5 The Dorset Ginger Company

And last but by no means least is The Dorset Ginger Company. TDGC is a family-run business established in 1985 and based right here in Poole, Dorset. Their range of award-winning, non-alcoholic, hand-blended ginger drinks had to make our list! We love ginger for its many health benefits like it’s anti-oxidising and anti-inflammatory effects and it’s great to have such an innovative brand right on our doorstep. The brand proudly shows off it’s Dorset heritage, and the colour palette perfectly complements the colour of the beverage inside. Simple, yet effective!

If you’re a Dorset drink brand looking to increase your visibility, extend your product lines, evolve your brand or re-design your label in 2020, get in touch with the team today- we’d love to hear from you!