Wine Tasting at Gutter & Stars

Wine Tasting at the Urban winery

Gutter&Stars is proud to be Cambridge’s first winery. Winemaker and founder Chris Wilson has wanted to start his own winemaking business for some time, and in 2017 he began the search for the perfect site for a small-scale urban winery in Cambridge, the city he’s lived in with his family since 2013.

In 2020 a golden opportunity came up to house the winery in the basement of a Grade II-listed windmill less than a mile from the city centre, and work began turning this octagonal cave into the city’s first winemaking facility.

The winery is housed in the mill’s basement. It’s the perfect spot in some ways (a 15°C ambient temperature, a good drainage system, bags of character) and challenging in others (low ceiling height, single phrase power, narrow-ish door). It’s these challenges that Chris is looking forward to overcoming during his winemaking adventure; and he’s sure they will shape the wine he makes in many ways.

The space itself is bijou (just 33m2) but it is big enough for a rack of ex-Burgundy barrels, a handful of tanks – including a natty egg-shaped fermenter from Germany – and all the equipment and fittings needed to make quality wine.