Adelaide Hills Distillery

Forty kilometers east of Adelaide, where the city's sprawl surrenders to rolling hills and ancient gum trees, Sacha La Forgia found his calling in 2014. The Adelaide Hills had been wine country for generations, but La Forgia saw something else in these undulating slopes—a place where whisky could capture the essence of South Australian terroir.

The distillery draws its lifeblood from the Adelaide Hills aquifer, water that has filtered through layers of sediment and stone, emerging with a mineral clarity that speaks of the region's geological patience. This is water that understands the land, having traveled through it for decades before finding its way into La Forgia's mash tuns.

Here, in the heart of wine country, the relationship between vineyard and distillery becomes intimate. Empty Shiraz, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay barrels from neighboring vineyards make the short journey to become whisky's finishing school. The barrels arrive still perfumed with Adelaide Hills fruit, their oak staves ready to impart the complex marriage of wine and grain that defines the distillery's character.

The grain itself tells a story of South Australian agriculture—sourced from the Fleurieu Peninsula's coastal plains and the Barossa Valley's sun-baked fields. These are grains that know the extremes of Australian seasons, the scorching summers and cool, wet winters that forge resilience into every kernel.

The 78 Degrees whisky range takes its name from the longitude that runs through these hills, a geographic marker that places each bottle firmly in its terroir. In the stillhouse, the extreme temperature swings that characterize Australian whisky-making accelerate maturation, forcing rapid conversations between spirit and wood. What takes a decade elsewhere happens faster here, the relentless cycle of expansion and contraction writing flavor into the whisky with urgent intensity.

La Forgia's growing single malt program represents more than production expansion—it's a declaration that Australian whisky has found its voice. In a country where whisky-making was once considered impossible, the Adelaide Hills Distillery stands as proof that terroir extends beyond wine, that the marriage of local water, grain, and climate can create something distinctly, unmistakably Australian.

The hills that once knew only vines now echo with a different kind of alchemy, one that speaks with an Australian accent.