Wiltshire Marque champions county's food and drink

Unveiled by Wiltshire Council at an event at Pythouse Kitchen Garden, the Wiltshire Marque is a new food and drink accreditation and promotion scheme.

For producers and sellers who meet the criteria to join, they will get added to a new online hub, where they will get their own page and be able to share more about their products.

Read more: Salisbury Manor opens collection point for Salisbury Pantry

Wiltshire Council Leader Richard Clewer spoke at the event (Image: Mighty) Speaking at the event, Wiltshire Council leader Richard Clewer said: "The Wiltshire Marque is the culmination of a stream of work that I first started thinking about 10 years ago, about what we can do to put Wiltshire more on the map.

“Far too often, Wiltshire is a place people drive through on their way down to Cornwall, or pop-off at Stonehenge on their way to Bath.”

The general eligibility criteria states producers, growers, makers, processors and sellers have to be based in Wiltshire

The Wiltshire Marque goes further, asserting produce must be grown, reared, raised, caught, laid, fished, brewed or processed within the Scheme Boundary.

Everyone must operate in accordance with Trading Standards, Environmental Health, Animal Welfare Standards, and any other relevant UK and European licensing and legislation, too.

Read more: Daily Mail names two Wiltshire pubs in UK's top 100

Namratha Gorur loves the science behind making whiskey(Image: Charles Elliman) Namratha Gorur, a 27 year-old distiller from Witchmarck Distillery, said: "We are promoting all the local businesses and supporting them and Witchmark Distillery is very personal and very local and they’re trying to do something remarkable in English whiskey."

The distillery is based in a 17th century barn at the village of Fonthill Bishop and uses ingredients so local that they are, quite literally, from across the road.

Its named after the medieval 'witch marks' carved into Fonthill's old stone buildings, designed to keep evil spirits away, but Namratha brings a modern edge.

The woman from Bangalore, who studied Bio-Technology Engineering, said: "I see it as a science, which is beautifully crafted from a grain to alcohol, which everyone loves across the world.”

The event took place at the Pythouse Kitchen Garden (Image: Charles Elliman) The Journal asked Namratha if she had any tips for would-be whiskey drinkers and she exclaimed: "Please don’t add lots of water to whiskey! We have spent hours and hours to distil alcohol and water to make it separate.

“Maybe an ice-cube is still ok, [but] first always try it neat so you know what’s the body, the composition of the whiskey is like."

Read more: Low-key New Forest pub featured among top 100 in the UK

Lyall Dew's Rude Giant Brew Co. is about fun and good beer (Image: Charles Elliman) By Pythouse's rain soaked apple orchard, the Journal caught Rude Giant Brew Co. director Lyall Dew, who said his brewery was about, "Fun and finding beer people want to drink!”

Lyall's company operates the Rude Giant Beer House in Salisbury, which calls itself the city's number one live music venue.

Speaking to Lyall, he told the Journal that Rude Giant looks to bring fun and tradition back into a "saturated" market place.

Lyall said: "What we bring is a bit of normality to a market that is saturated with lots of crazy beer, so we are just producing high-quality beers that are accessible for everyone.

"Our biggest seller is out lager, for example, which has become a real showstopper. Lots of pubs are taking it as a local option against all the sort-of big brand lagers."

The beer fanatic continued: "Our ethos has always been about local produce and making sure we making things locally, but also supplying locally so that people get good beer."