Bakery Hill – the Victorian pioneer

Written By Campbell Mattinson
Bottle of Bakery Hill Classic Malt Whiskey.

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.

Campbell Mattinson

This post was written by Campbell Mattinson. Mattinson is a former chief editor of the Halliday Wine Companion book, former editor of Halliday magazine, former editor of Australian Sommelier Magazine and founder of The Winefront business. He is the author of five books on wine – four of which were bestsellers (The Wine Hunter, the Big Red Wine Book 2008, the Big Red Wine Book 2009, and the Big Red Wine Book 2010).

Mattinson is also the founder of the Mattinson Photography business.

Campbell Mattinson has been an independent journalist, wine critic and photographer for forty years. He’s the only Australian to have won the Australian Wine Communicator of the Year Award more than once. He’s a past winner of a Louis Roederer International Wine Media Award; is the author of the award-winning book The Wine Hunter; and is the author of the best-selling novel We Were Not Men. He’s also a winner of a St Kilda Film Festival Award (as writer-director) and is a former winner of the national Best Australian Sports Writing Award. In 2026 three of his photographs were short-listed for the World Food Photography Awards.

Campbell Mattinson, who is 100% independent, has tasted between 5000 and 10,000 wines each and every year for the past 25 years. He tastes blind, in comparative brackets, as often as is practicable.

Campbell Mattinson is a journalist, a photographer, a filmmaker and a wine critic. In all of these mediums his prime motive is to tell people's stories.

https://www.campbellmattinson.com
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Lark – the origin point