Bakery Hill – the Victorian pioneer

Bakery Hill – the Victorian pioneer
Victoria.
ABV: 46% (Classic Malt, the core single malt; 500ml).

David Baker's Bakery Hill was making serious single malt on the mainland when almost no one else was; it was the first modern distillery established outside of Tasmania, and only the third or fourth in the country. A chemistry teacher and food scientist "tired of being told whisky could only be made in Scotland," Baker set up in the unassuming outer-Melbourne suburb of Bayswater in 1999, with the first spirit flowing from his copper pot still in 2000. Bakery Hill’s whiskies earned real international regard early: Jim Murray named Bakery Hill his Best Small Distillery of the Year in 2005, and later handed its Peated Malt Cask Strength his Southern Hemisphere Whisky of the Year. Baker is a purist – he won't blend barrels, won't add caramel colouring, and matures longer than most – and the core range he launched in 2003 (Classic, Double Wood, Peated) is essentially the one he sells today. Bakery Hill is foundational name, and is essential for anyone tracing how Australian single malt grew beyond Tasmania.