Oxford Artisan Distillery
The Oxford Artisan Distillery or TOAD for short is located in a barn at the former Cheney Farm in the Hedington suburb of Oxford. Founded by Tom Nicolson, Cory Mason, and Tagore Ramoutar, in 2017 thy decided that they wanted to do things a little bit different. Not only did they want to produce high quality spirits from locally grown Rye, but the cereal had to be grown organically and it had to be heritage varieties as well.
They believed that due to modern intensive farming practices most of the cereals grown in the UK were grown for their increased yields rather than the character of the individual cereal, thus the distillery purchases historic varieties of rye, wheat and barley grain from five specially selected local organic and regenerative farms, mostly within a 50-mile radius of the distillery in Oxford.
You could certainly say that the guys at the distillery went against the grain when planning what cereals to use to create their whisky, but they also went against the grain with regards to their stills. Most new distilleries tend to approach the world renowned still maker Forsyths in Scotland, but not these guys, instead they approached South Devon Railway Engineering, as they were one of the last great historical industrial coppersmiths in England, famous for their refurbishment of the Flying Scotsman.
So, combining the practicality of distilling a top quality distillate, the romance of steam, Victorian engineering, old diving helmets and imagery from Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, their two copper stills were born – a 2,400ltr still called Nautilus and a smaller 500ltr still called Nemo, together with two five metre tall, 40-plate copper distillation columns.
Like most new distilleries, they began by producing an Oxford Rye Organic Dry Gin and Oxford Rye Organic Vodka in 2018 and in 2021 they followed it up with the first batch of their Oxford Rye Whisky. Each of the releases is a small batch release and produced from a mash of 70% Rye, 20% Wheat and 10% Malted Barley, aged for a minimum of 3 years primarily in ex-American oak but they have been filing their spirit into ex-Pedro Ximenez, ex-Port and ex- Moscatel Roxo casks.
They believed that due to modern intensive farming practices most of the cereals grown in the UK were grown for their increased yields rather than the character of the individual cereal, thus the distillery purchases historic varieties of rye, wheat and barley grain from five specially selected local organic and regenerative farms, mostly within a 50-mile radius of the distillery in Oxford.
You could certainly say that the guys at the distillery went against the grain when planning what cereals to use to create their whisky, but they also went against the grain with regards to their stills. Most new distilleries tend to approach the world renowned still maker Forsyths in Scotland, but not these guys, instead they approached South Devon Railway Engineering, as they were one of the last great historical industrial coppersmiths in England, famous for their refurbishment of the Flying Scotsman.
So, combining the practicality of distilling a top quality distillate, the romance of steam, Victorian engineering, old diving helmets and imagery from Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, their two copper stills were born – a 2,400ltr still called Nautilus and a smaller 500ltr still called Nemo, together with two five metre tall, 40-plate copper distillation columns.
Like most new distilleries, they began by producing an Oxford Rye Organic Dry Gin and Oxford Rye Organic Vodka in 2018 and in 2021 they followed it up with the first batch of their Oxford Rye Whisky. Each of the releases is a small batch release and produced from a mash of 70% Rye, 20% Wheat and 10% Malted Barley, aged for a minimum of 3 years primarily in ex-American oak but they have been filing their spirit into ex-Pedro Ximenez, ex-Port and ex- Moscatel Roxo casks.
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