English rye whisky is still a genuine rarity, and that alone makes Fielden Harvest 2019 worth paying attention to. This is a 50% ABV rye whisky from an English producer — not something you stumble across every day. At £68.95, it sits in that interesting middle ground where you're paying a premium for something genuinely different, but not so much that it feels like a gamble.
What I find compelling about this bottle is the category itself. Rye whisky has long been dominated by American distillers, where federal regulations require at least 51% rye grain in the mashbill. English producers aren't bound by those same rules, which means there's real creative freedom in how the grain bill is constructed and how the spirit is handled. The 'Harvest 2019' designation suggests a focus on provenance — a specific crop year, which tells me the distillery cares about the agricultural side of things. That grain-to-glass thinking is something I respect enormously.
At 50% ABV, this has been bottled at a strength that means business. It's not been watered down to a polite 40% — there's enough muscle here to carry flavour without needing to wrestle with cask-strength heat. For a rye, that's a sweet spot. Rye grain naturally brings a spicier, drier character compared to barley or corn, and bottling at 50% lets those qualities come through with real presence.
Tasting Notes
I don't have detailed tasting notes to share for this particular bottling, but based on the style — English rye at 50% ABV — you should expect the signature rye spice profile: think peppery warmth, dry cereal notes, and a leaner body than you'd get from a bourbon or single malt. English climate maturation tends to produce spirits that develop relatively quickly, so even without a stated age, there's every chance this has developed a pleasant balance between grain character and whatever oak influence it's picked up.
The Verdict
I'm giving the Fielden Harvest 2019 a 7.6 out of 10. This scores well because it represents something genuinely interesting in the whisky landscape. English rye is a tiny category, and the fact that someone is producing it at a proper drinking strength with what appears to be real attention to the raw ingredients earns marks in my book. The £68.95 price point is fair for a craft English whisky — you're not paying supermarket blended Scotch prices, but you're getting something with genuine character and a story that isn't just marketing fluff. It loses a couple of points simply because this is still a young category finding its feet, and without confirmed distillery details or an age statement, there's a small leap of faith involved. But that leap is rewarded with a bottle that stands apart from everything else on your shelf.
Best Served
I'd start this one neat in a Glencairn glass at room temperature — at 50% ABV, a few drops of water will open it up nicely if the heat is too forward. Once you've got a feel for the spirit on its own, try it in a Rye Old Fashioned: two ounces of the Fielden, a barspoon of demerara syrup, two dashes of Angostura bitters, stirred over ice. English rye in an American classic — that's a conversation starter right there. The higher bottling strength means it won't get lost under the sweetener and bitters the way a 40% spirit might. If you're feeling adventurous, a Manhattan with this as the base and a good sweet vermouth could be something special — rye was always the original Manhattan grain, after all.
