The Oxford Artisan Distillery are set to rebrand and change their name to Fielden Whisky. The rebrand will coincide with a move from their current production facility to a new distillery in Goole, Yorkshire.
Mark Harvey, managing director of sales and marketing at Fielden, has said that the group had simply “outgrown the site”. The Oxford distillery has now been commissioned, with the Yorkshire facility scheduled to be completed by September.
The Oxford Artisan Distillery was founded in 2016 and specialised in whisky made using heritage varieties of grain. The group were keen to promote sustainability and biodiversity and supported research into farming methods that didn’t rely on chemicals.
Fielden comes from an Old English word meaning ‘of the field’, which suggests a continuation of their ethos. Indeed, they will continue to utilise heritage grains and promote traditional farming techniques.
Harvey added “We really want to grow this farming movement… It was clear to us that we needed to be really clear in the brand and communicate the benefits of this way of farming in a really straightforward way.”
The new name is an important part of this, as it helps “put the consumer straight into the home of heritage grain, in the field.”
As part of these endeavours, the company has recently planted 2,100 acres of heritage grain in a number of farms between Cornwall to Norfolk.
The move has been facilitated by a minority investment from Distill Ventures, a Diageo-backed ‘spirits accelerator’. In November 2022 Distill ventures invested in the Oxford Artisan brand with the explicit intent on expanding their market presence and increasing the production capabilities. However, the group were also buying into the distillery’s sustainability efforts.
Speaking at the time of the investment, Oxford Artisan CEO Dave Smith noted that “over the last few years we have seen the industry take major steps towards addressing the climate crisis, but we have a responsibility to do more in tackling sustainable farming and grain production.
“With Diageo and Distill Ventures’ support, we believe we can use whisky to further a revolution in the field. We have been blown away by the team’s belief in our mission and could not be happier to be entering the next stage of our journey with them alongside.”
Production at the Oxford site was limited to 30,000 litres per year and, even though the initial investment did allow for some increased output, the new distillery will vastly over shadow this with a capacity of 450,000 litres.
There are currently no plans to include a visitor centre at the Yorkshire distillery. Similarly, Fielden will focus exclusively on whisky production; the Oxford distillery had also produced gin and vodka.
Fielden have announced their first whisky under the new name: Fielden Rye. This expression is made from some of the last stocks produced at The Oxford Artisan Distillery and will be the brand’s first core whisky.
The Fielden Rye consists of 10% malted barley and 90% maslin - a mix of rye and wheat.
Harvey has confirmed that a number of special releases will come in the near future. However, whisky from the new distillery won’t be released for at least another 4 years. As such, any whisky released under the Fielden name will be either from Oxford stock or purchased from a third party.
It must be a tough task to face renaming your product. There’s always the risk that consumers may not be aware of the change. In some ways its almost like starting over again.
That said, it’s a logical step in this case. Arguably, a change in production facility should always come with a rebrand. After all, if Ardbeg moved their distillery and warehouses off Islay and onto the mainland, it would be really hard to say that they are still ‘Ardbeg’ no matter how diligently they recreated their whisky.
And for a brand like Fielden, where heritage and provenance are integral to their identity, the change is a no brainer. English whisky is a market that continues to grow and evolve, and it will be exciting to see where Fielden finds itself in the coming years.