Pictures by Jim Wileman
Wicked Wolf Spirits
Crafted and inspired by the wild character of Exmoor, Wicked Wolf creates premium spirits with depth, balance and a real sense of place.
Husband and wife team Pat Patel and Julie Heap met at Falmouth School of Art in 1988. After graduating and working in London for nearly two decades they both felt the pull to return to the West Country and ended up buying a converted Methodist chapel on Exmoor in 2006.
Julie and Pat carried on working in London till 2010, Julie worked as an Account Director and Pat as an Art Director in branding agencies. Pat still does all the design and artwork for Wicked Wolf.
Soon after moving to Exmoor permanently Julie and Pat decided it was going to be too difficult to carry on their previous careers, so looked round for something they could work on together, taking advantage of Pat’s palette for strong flavours. Their initial idea of producing charcuterie required too much financial investment and the short shelf life of charcuterie made it impractical.
The idea of producing their own gin came about as it was at the height of the gin renaissance and both of them love and drink gin. To this day they still can’t agree on who came up with the idea of gin first! Their goal has always been to produce standout premium, flavourful, smooth spirits.
After two years of experiments (some very costly!) they launched Wicked Wolf Gin in September 2015. It took off far better than anticipated and they were soon both working full time in the distillery.
The name Wicked Wolf originated from a pub they drank in in Clerkenwell, London and is also a nod towards the legend of the Exmoor beast! Julie and Pat also owned two Exmoor Lurchers at the time which influenced the choice of name and imagery. You can see Pat’s love of horror films, especially Hammer Horror, in the names and imagery of the spirits and advertising.
In true artisan style they still slow distill in their copper alembic stills and all bottles are filled, labeled and waxed by hand. The range of Wicked Wolf Spirits now includes a number gins, a vodka and a rum. Pat has never stopped experimenting with flavours (Julie is the chief taste tester!) so there is always something new and exciting on the horizon.