Between Geelong and Melbourne sits the quant country town Little River, surrounded by open fields against the spectacular backdrop of the You Yangs. Our distillery lies in an area rich in Victorian history, at the estate formerly built for pastoralist Robert Chirnside in 1873.

The land, history and the people inspire and enrich our spirits.

As opposed to the majority of gin producers worldwide, we don’t buy industrially refined ethanol to produce craft spirits. We are a paddock to bottle distillery. That means every millilitre of spirit inside a Rothwell Distillery bottle originated in some way from our farm. We grow our own barley to ferment and distill our own neutral grain spirit. In our orchards we grow most of the botanicals we need, with the aim to grow all botanicals on site by 2026. We’re proud to produce a unique, truly hand-made and land-tied spirit at Rothwell Distillery.

With such a rich history surrounding Mount Rothwell Estate, we owed it to its heritage to craft spirits inspired by it. Our Shepherd’s Run Gin is inspired by the over 100 years of sheep shearing and cultivation right here in the walls of our distillery. Our Jumbuck Gin features botanicals native to our surroundings and features the endangered Melbourne Yellow Gum, which grows abundantly here at Rothwell estate, on its label.

We like to have fun too, founder and owner Michael Smith has a line of gin and vodka celebrating his achievements as Australian Geographic Adventurer of the Year 2016, solo-circumnavigating the globe in his amphibious aircraft. We also pay homage to owner Michael and Anne’s background, restoring the iconic Sun Theatre in Yarraville from total ruin to a cultural hub of Melbourne’s South West Suburbs, with Director’s Cut and Art Deco Gins.

The distiller behind all these creations is their son Tim. Tim’s previous life during the pandemic was spent working at the Doherty Institute on antivirals, vaccines, and even GARLIC as treatments for COVID-19! He hung up the hazmat suit at the start of 2022 to pursue a career in craft spirits at Rothwell Distillery, and in just under 2 years was awarded two medals at the 2024 Australian Distilled Spirit Awards.

Our spirits are available in our online store, and served at Sun Cinemas.

The Distillery will open to the public as a restaurant and cellar door in late 2024.