Building A New Spirits Category: The English Whisky Example

Sometimes the most transformative business ideas emerge from the simplest observations. In my conversation with Daniel Szor, founder of Cotswolds Distillery, we explored how English spirits are being built as a category through persistence, authenticity, and strategic thinking that challenges conventional wisdom.

The Barley Field Epiphany

We discussed the exact moment that changed everything for Daniel - and it wasn't in a boardroom or during a distillery tour. It was July 2012, a beautiful Sunday afternoon after lunch with "probably a little bit too much wine." Daniel was looking out at his farmhouse window, watching barley ripple in the breeze, when a thought struck him: "They grow a lot of barley here. And there's also 35 million visitors a year that come to the Cotswolds. Maybe we could build a whisky distillery."

This moment of inspiration came from his deep knowledge of Bruichladdich's story - how they had successfully built a brand around sense of place. As Daniel noted: "I said, I don't have to bring barley farming to the Cotswolds. It's been there forever."

But Daniel came to this realization through an unconventional path. After working in finance for three decades, a personal crisis led him and his wife to buy a farmhouse in the Cotswolds. What started as weekend retreat became the foundation for something entirely different when he had that barley field epiphany.