About
Melbourne's only CBD distillery, housed in a heritage-listed cottage at 17 Casselden Place that was once a brothel and speakeasy. Produced the first single malt legally distilled and aged in Melbourne's CBD. Whisky aged in Cell #13 of the Old Melbourne Gaol Watch House. Inaugural release at 44% ABV, limited to 500 bottles. Tasting notes of burnt honey, apples, coffee, dark chocolate, toasted oak and warming spices. Also known for gin production.
Production Details
The Little Lon Distilling Co. Tale
In the heart of Melbourne's CBD, where glass towers cast shadows over cobblestone lanes, stands a heritage-listed cottage at 17 Casselden Place that has worn many faces across the decades. Once a brothel, later a speakeasy during prohibition's grip, the building at Little Lon Distilling Co. carries the whispers of Melbourne's underworld in its weathered brick walls.
This is Melbourne's only CBD distillery, a bold claim to urban whisky-making that defies the pastoral romance typically associated with the craft. Here, the water flows not from highland springs but through Melbourne's municipal system—city water for a city whisky, honest about its origins and unapologetic in its location.
The choice to distill in the urban core speaks to something distinctly Australian: the refusal to be bound by old-world traditions. While Scottish distilleries nestle in remote glens, Little Lon Distilling Co. embraces the pulse of the city, drawing energy from the very streets that once knew the footsteps of gold rush fortune-seekers and prohibition-era rebels.
The distillery's inaugural single malt carries the distinction of being the first legally distilled and aged in Melbourne's CBD—a milestone that connects modern craft to the city's bootlegging past. But perhaps most remarkably, some of their whisky finds its rest in Cell #13 of the Old Melbourne Gaol Watch House, where the spirit ages behind bars, absorbing the weight of history from limestone walls that once held bushrangers and petty criminals alike.
That inaugural release, limited to just 500 bottles at 44% ABV, represents more than whisky—it's liquid proof that Australian distilling has moved beyond imitation into innovation. The cottage that once harbored secrets now proudly displays its copper stills, transforming from hidden vice to celebrated craft.
Little Lon Distilling Co. stands as testament to Australia's whisky revolution, where heritage buildings become stillhouses and urban environments challenge rural conventions. In a country where whisky-making is still young enough to be revolutionary, they've chosen the most unlikely of locations to make the most fundamental of statements: great whisky can emerge from anywhere, even from the shadows of skyscrapers.