Established in 2018, the Rochfort Distillery is located at 34 Mont Rosa Road, just on the outskirts of Victor Harbor in South Australia on a sprawling property surrounded by spring-fed lagoons, gum trees and vines. It’s a single malt whisky distillery owned and operated by the Rochfort family. John Rochfort, whose extended family also owns the famous McLaren Vale Distillery, was the former CEO of Tasmania’s Lark Distillery, and he’s been making whisky for more than 20 years.

The focus of the Distillery is to showcase whisky aged in premium South Australian barrels with a proven pedigree. Their inaugural whisky won’t be ready until around 2021 but the first whisky bearing the Rochfort Distillery name was made from the family’s private collection of barrels and released in February 2019. The whisky was aged in casks procured from the famous Australian winemaker Geoff Hardy which were brought to Australia in the 1890s by his great-great grandfather Sir Thomas Hardy, originally holding brandy and later Muscat.

Unfortunately the distillery has fallen on hard times and went into liquidation in early 2020. Lets hope new life can bring back the distillery and property to its short lived, former beauty.