Lambeau adds La Crosse’s Fieldnotes as house vodka

A visit to Lambeau Field is likely to include any number of Wisconsin favorites, including brats, cheese curds or a nice cold beer, in addition to the four-time Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers.

But this year, the Lambeau faithful could find themselves enjoying a taste of La Crosse. That’s because Fieldnotes Organic Vodka, produced by La Crosse Distilling Co., is now the house Vodka of Lambeau Field. 

Nick Weber, CEO and founder of the company, says higher costs usually make it impractical for a craft spirit to be the go-to brand. He credits the distillery’s direct relationships with southwestern Wisconsin farmers for helping keep costs low.

“One way that we’re able to really make this accessible to most people price-wise is because of our relationships going direct with the farmer. You know, having a handshake deal, talking to them about what’s working and what’s not,” Weber told WPR’s “Morning Edition.”

This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.

EW: Basically, what’s happening is Fieldnotes Organic Vodka is surpassing national brands like Tito’s and Absolut for this placement. How did that happen?

NW: I think it’s a testament to our DNA, our mantra of staying local. With all of our products, we work with small local family farmers.

We’ve always kind of looked at making this place better than we found it. We want to treat the land ethically. We get that from Aldo Leopold, among many other great conservationists.

But to us, it’s being true to being local. And I think the Green Bay Packers also do that very well. If you look at a lot of their partnerships there with Festival Foods, Kwik Trip, Johnsonville Brats and Miller, among many others. It’s a testament to them and to us for finding that common ground of bringing a local premium product to Lambeau Field.

EW: Being the official this, or the official that, of an organization is part of marketing for them and for you. There’s often a financial cost involved in being the brand of choice. What makes this different than simply a pay-to-play situation?

NW: I think it goes back to the Packers’ testament to really working with Wisconsin companies. And that probably does give us a notch up. But we’ve always had great synergy with them since we first met with them three years ago.

They came down and sought us out. At the time, Absolut Vodka was a main brand along with Tito’s and one other group. And since then, they kind of have brought us in more and more every single year.

And this year, finally, they’ve made us the official house vodka of Lambeau Field and the Green Bay Packers. So every vodka drink that you order there — unless you request a specific high-end vodka and pay extra for that — every vodka drink will be poured with Fieldnotes.

EW: Is it unusual to see a higher quality craft spirit chosen as the go-to brand – to be “on the rail,” as they say?

NW: It’s a bit unusual to not going through a middleman, third-party brokerage group. Nothing against them, but we have direct relationships with our farmers. So we do cut out that level of additional cost. That’s helped us keep our product very low and accessible as far as price goes, but still being a premium quality.

EW: What kind of products are you getting from local farmers that go into making your vodka and other spirits?

NW: Corn is probably our biggest one. Different types of wheats, ryes, local honey, local maple syrup, local coffee — obviously the the coffee beans don’t come from Wisconsin, but where they’re brewed and all that is all local. A lot of it’s from the La Crosse County, Vernon County and Monroe County areas.

EW: So as a taster, how do you know when you’re tasting something that really is a top-notch vodka versus that supermarket bottle?

NW: Technically, you want it to be as neutral as possible. Because we use heirloom corn varietals for our vodka, it comes across as much softer and smoother on the tongue. But it’s also very neutral. It does have a little bit of sweetness from the heirloom corn.

EW: In addition to vodka, Fieldnotes also has organic gin and La Crosse Distilling has several other products that you make. Is there any chance of those becoming a Lambeau Field favorite, or for that matter the Bucks, the Brewers or somebody else?

NW: We’ve talked to some other professional teams as well, but right now we’re committed to the Packers. And Lambeau and the Packers do actually carry some of our other products, but that’s more at club-level spots and on event catering menus.

If there’s something in southwestern Wisconsin you think we should be talking about on “Morning Edition,” let us know. Our email is southwest@wpr.org.