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The Best Distilleries in and Around Hobart for Gin and Whisky Tastings
Tasmania’s become a frontrunner for top-shelf whisky and gin, so head to these best distilleries in Hobart to get sipping at the source.
The best distilleries in Hobart range from Sullivans Cove in Cambridge for world-class single malt whisky to Institut Polaire in the CBD for gin tastings, with LARK Distillery spanning Hobart and Pontville and Hartshorn Distillery turning sheep whey into vodka further south in Birchs Bay.
Tasmania’s cool climate, clean water, local barley and native botanicals have helped build one of Australia’s most exciting spirits scenes, and Hobart is the finest place to taste it at the source. From guided tastings and working stills to cellar doors worth making a detour for, these are the distilleries Sitchu’s editors would actually send you to on your next Tasmania trip.
In This Guide
Best Whisky Distilleries in Hobart
Derwent Distillery Tasting House
For Tasmanian whisky in Hobart, Derwent Distillery’s Battery Point Tasting House brings the spirit of the Derwent Valley into the heart of the city. The Hampden Road shopfront pours the family-run distillery’s full range, including Botrytis and Tawny cask single malts, Last Sanctuary Native Gin and house-made liqueurs, with guided tastings and bottles available to take home.
Production still happens beside the Derwent River in Dromedary, but this intimate Battery Point outpost makes the range far easier to discover. Drop in between Salamanca and Battery Point for a tasting, keep an eye out for limited releases and leave with a much better understanding of one of Tasmania’s most interesting small-batch distilleries.
46 Hampden Road, Battery Point
Sullivans Cove
Whisky pilgrims, clear some luggage space. Sullivans Cove has been making Tasmanian single malt since 1994, helping push Australian whisky onto the world stage with a string of major international wins. In 2026, it claimed World’s Best Single Cask Single Malt for the third time.
After almost a year of renovations, its Cambridge Visitor Experience is back open, with guided tastings, daily distillery tours and access to rare pours and visitor-only bottles that may have already vanished elsewhere. Each cask is bottled individually, so every release carries its own character. Settle in at the new bar, work through a flight and ask plenty of questions. Just don’t bank on leaving with only one bottle.
1/10 Lamb Place, Cambridge
LARK Distillery
Tasmania’s modern whisky story owes an enormous debt to LARK. Bill and Lyn Lark secured the state’s first distilling licence since 1839 in 1992, setting in motion a revival that now draws whisky drinkers from around the world. At its historic Pontville distillery, 30 minutes north of Hobart, tours get you among the stills before the considerably more enjoyable business of tasting begins. Back in town, the original Davey Street Cellar Door pours rare and museum releases, while GOTHAM at The Still on Argyle Street now deals in martinis, oysters and late-night drinks. One distillery, three very good reasons to investigate further.
76 Shene Road, Pontville (LARK Distillery)
14 Davey Street, Hobart (LARK Cellar Door)
30 Argyle Street, Hobart (GOTHAM at The Still)
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Killara Distillery
Whisky runs through the family at Killara Distillery, the Richmond home of second-generation distiller Kristy Lark-Booth. The daughter of LARK founders Bill and Lyn Lark, Kristy spent more than 18 years in the industry before striking out on her own, creating single malt whisky, Apothecary Gin and seasonal spirits with a distinctly personal stamp.
Visit the cellar door and Apothecary Gardens for a $20 tasting of whisky, gin and seasonal releases, or go deeper with the $75 private whisky experience, including a tour of the distillery and bond store, three whiskies and a taste straight from the barrel.
Sitchu Tip: Time your visit for the second Friday of the month and the meadow comes alive with live music, food trucks, G&Ts and whisky, with picnics welcome. It is Killara at its most relaxed, with Richmond’s countryside stretching out around you.
32 Ogilvie Lane, Richmond
Best Gin Distilleries in Hobart
Institut Polaire
Hobart’s coolest gin tasting takes place across the snowy marble bar at Institut Polaire, an ice-white wine bar, brasserie and cellar door inspired by Tasmania’s connection to Antarctica. Settle in for a flight of three micro-batch Süd Polaire gins, spanning Antarctic Dry, saffron and Pinot Cru, with Tasmanian botanicals and pristine rainwater shaping each pour.
Martini devotees should book the Sunday Martini Masterclass, a 45-minute deep dive into the Antarctic Dry Martini with variations and snack plates. Or stay for the evening and move from gin into tiny-production Domaine Simha wines and Institut Polaire’s seasonal menu.
Book a tasting experience here
Unit 1/7 Murray Street, Hobart
7K Distillery
Raspberry gin may be 7K Distillery calling card, but there is plenty more bubbling away at its New Norfolk home. Made with intensely flavoured Willamette raspberries grown nearby at Westerway, its cult Tasmanian Raspberry Gin sits alongside Bramble, Dry Chilli and Mediterranean-inspired gins, plus small-batch vodka, liqueurs and an increasingly serious collection of Tasmanian single malt whiskies.
Head to the Derwent Valley tasting house for a guided flight of the five core gins, explore the entire spirits range or settle into three single malts spanning casks such as Armagnac, Cognac and rye. The distillery takes its name from Tasmania’s 7000-series postcodes, with local ingredients and a restless approach to flavour running through much of what lands in the glass.
55 Hamilton Road, New Norfolk
Best Distillery Day Trips From Hobart
Old Kempton Distillery
Whisky comes with nearly two centuries of history at Old Kempton Distillery, set inside Dysart House, an 1842 coaching inn around 40 minutes north of Hobart. Built by convict embezzler turned innkeeper William Ellis, the sandstone property once sheltered travellers making the long journey between Hobart and Launceston. Today, its original convict-brick stables are filled with casks of maturing Tasmanian single malt.
Book the daily Tour & Taste to explore the working distillery, heritage grounds and bond store before sampling four Old Kempton spirits, or settle into the Cask Lounge for a whisky flight spanning Pinot, Sherry, Port and special-cask releases. Gin and Tasmanian liqueur flights are also on offer.
Make time for lunch while you are there. The cafe keeps things pleasingly country with house-made whisky pies, Tasmanian antipasto platters and Devonshire tea, best taken into the courtyard when the weather behaves.
26 Main Street, Kempton
Callington Mill Distillery
Whisky and Georgian sandstone make very good travelling companions. An hour north of Hobart, Callington Mill Distillery occupies Oatlands’ restored 1837 mill precinct, pairing one of Tasmania’s prettiest heritage towns with some startlingly modern whisky-making machinery. Local barley and water from the nearby Blackman River go into its Tasmanian single malts, which you can taste after a distillery tour or over lunch at the cellar door. Go all in with the Serendipity Experience and blend your own cask-strength whisky to bottle and take home.
6 Mill Lane, Oatlands
New Norfolk Distillery
Rum has found an unlikely home inside New Norfolk’s historic Willow Court precinct. New Norfolk Distillery, Tasmania’s only dedicated rum distillery, ferments, distils, ages and bottles its spirits on site, transforming Australian molasses into award-winning rums, cane spirits and liqueurs.
Start with Near Horizon, named World’s Best Traditional Spiced Rum for the second consecutive year in 2026, then explore the wilder edges of the range, from single-cask rum to coffee, lamington and Dutch cookie liqueurs. Founder Tarrant Derksen also became one of only around 30 Master Rummeliers worldwide in 2026, so there is serious knowledge behind every pour.
Take a distillery tour, settle in for a tasting or stay for a drink at The Electric Oasis Bar, a wonderfully offbeat, futuristic riff on a tiki rum bar inside one of the Derwent Valley’s most significant heritage sites.
60 Humphrey Street, New Norfolk
Hellyers Road Distillery
Australia’s oldest operating whisky distillery sits high above Burnie, surrounded by the rich farmland of Tasmania’s north-west. Hellyers Road Distillery began in 1997 as an ambitious side project for a local dairy cooperative and has since built one of the country’s deepest stocks of aged single malt whisky, including richly peated expressions and rare releases stretching beyond two decades.
The Havenview cellar door takes you straight into that history. Join the 45-minute Whisky Walk through the working distillery and bond store, taste aged whisky directly from cask or explore the new Distillers’ Choice room, home to 14 barrels aged from seven to 22 years. Choose a favourite and you can even hand-bottle and label 500 millilitres to take home.
Peated whisky remains a Hellyers Road signature, alongside American oak, fortified-wine and Tasmanian Pinot Noir cask expressions. For whisky lovers travelling Tasmania’s north-west, this is one stop worth allowing plenty of time for.
153 Old Surrey Road, Havenview
Hellfire Bluff Distillery
Potatoes have been growing at Daly Farm for more than 30 years, but at Hellfire Bluff Distillery, some of them end up somewhere far more interesting than the dinner table. The family-run distillery overlooking Marion Bay transforms its own Tasmanian potatoes into a rich, buttery vodka, alongside award-winning gins, cool-climate rum and liqueurs made with ingredients including farm-grown lemons, leatherwood honey and Tasmanian coffee.
Drop into the Boomer Bay cellar door for a tasting and a look across the working production space. There are no formal tours, but the team will happily talk you through the stills and small-batch process while you work your way through the range. For something bright, finish with the limoncello, made from locally sourced lemons whose zest is steeped for up to three months.
55 Craigs Hill Road, Boomer Bay
Spring Bay Distillery
Born beside the sea on Tasmania’s east coast, Spring Bay Distillery now has two very different ways to taste its award-winning gin and single malt whisky. The original Spring Beach cellar door overlooks the water near Orford, while its Cambridge distillery, just minutes from Hobart Airport, is the full grain-to-bottle operation.
At either location, start with a guided flight of three gins for $15 or three whiskies for $20. In Cambridge, the $50 distillery tour takes you through milling, fermentation, distillation and maturation before finishing with tastings and a Solera whisky sample.
Whisky devotees can go one step further with the Solera Experience, drawing whisky straight from the cask before filling and sealing a bottle of their own. The coastal DNA remains the thread through it all, from Tasmanian barley and water to whisky shaped by cask and climate.
205 Kennedy Drive, Cambridge
Best Unusual and Small-Batch Spirits Near Hobart
Hartshorn Distillery
Turning leftover cheese whey into award-winning booze sounds faintly unhinged until you taste the results. At Hartshorn Distillery in Birchs Bay, the family behind Grandvewe Cheeses takes sheep whey left over from cheesemaking and transforms it into remarkably silky vodka, gin and even its own ‘Whey-Sky’. The team was the first in the world to release spirits made from sheep whey, with its gin layered with native botanicals including lemon myrtle, wattleseed and Tasmanian pepper leaf.
The best introduction is the $20 Tasting Teaser, pairing Hartshorn spirits with Grandvewe sheep cheeses. For something far more hands-on, the $180 Spirited Alchemist Experience lets you play with 30 botanicals before blending, bottling and wax-sealing your own 500ml gin. All of this unfolds on the family farm overlooking the D’Entrecasteaux Channel and Bruny Island, around 40 minutes south of Hobart.
59 Devlyns Road, Birchs Bay
Bakehouse Distillery
Just beyond the Huon Valley in the heart of Dover, Bakehouse Distillery is crafting the world’s first sassafras-inspired spirit, Evoke. Inside a former 1920s bakehouse, distiller Martin Wohlgemuth vapour-distils native Southern Sassafras leaves in a copper Alquitar still, layering them with locally grown botanicals to create a spirit unlike gin, with notes of anise, mint, citrus and vanilla.
Visits unfold in the garden of this tiny home-based distillery, with tastings and a look at the still offering a wonderfully personal introduction to Tasmania’s wild Far South. The sassafras itself is selectively pruned from trees along local bush tracks, with more propagated around the distillery garden.
Sitchu Tip: Bakehouse Distillery does not keep regular opening hours, so call or email ahead to arrange your Evoke tasting before making the trip south.
8 Station Road, Dover
Frequently Asked Questions
Sullivans Cove in Cambridge is widely regarded as Tasmania’s benchmark whisky distillery, having won World’s Best Single Cask Single Malt three times, most recently in 2026. Its Cambridge Visitor Experience, just outside Hobart, offers guided tastings, daily distillery tours and access to visitor-only bottles. For gin, Institut Polaire in the Hobart CBD is a standout, with an Antarctic-themed tasting room pouring micro-batch gins made with Tasmanian botanicals and rainwater. Both are easily reached without a full day trip, making them strong starting points for a first Hobart distillery visit.
t varies by venue. Larger operations like Sullivans Cove, Spring Bay and Old Kempton run structured tours and tastings that generally benefit from advance booking, particularly on weekends. Smaller, home-based distilleries such as Bakehouse in Dover don’t keep regular opening hours at all, so contacting them directly before visiting is essential. Cellar doors attached to working distilleries, like LARK’s Davey Street location, tend to accommodate walk-ins more easily. If you’re planning a specific day around one or two distilleries, it’s worth checking each venue’s current booking policy directly before you go.
Yes, particularly if you stay within the city and its immediate surrounds. Institut Polaire and LARK’s Davey Street Cellar Door are both in the Hobart CBD, while Derwent Distillery’s Battery Point Tasting House is a short trip from Salamanca. Adding a distillery slightly further out, such as Sullivans Cove in Cambridge or Killara in Richmond, is still realistic within a single day with a car. Visiting the more remote options, like Hellfire Bluff or Hartshorn, is better suited to a dedicated day trip rather than combining with in-city stops.
Sullivans Cove and LARK Distillery are generally considered Hobart’s most significant whisky producers, both with decades of history and multiple international awards. LARK held Tasmania’s first distilling licence since 1839 and offers tastings across three separate venues, from the original Pontville distillery to GOTHAM at The Still in the city. Sullivans Cove, based in Cambridge, is bottled cask by cask, meaning each release has distinct character. Whisky travellers short on time should prioritise these two before venturing to the further-out single malt producers like Callington Mill or Old Kempton.
Yes. While Hobart’s reputation leans heavily on whisky, several distilleries specialise in gin. Institut Polaire in the CBD focuses entirely on micro-batch gin flights served in an Antarctic-themed setting. 7K Distillery in New Norfolk built its name on Tasmanian raspberry gin alongside four other core styles. Derwent Distillery’s Last Sanctuary Native Gin and LARK’s gin range are also worth seeking out for visitors who want to explore beyond single malt. Gin tastings tend to be shorter and more affordable than whisky flights, making them a good option for a quicker stop.
Now that you’ve had your fill of the best distilleries in Hobart, it’s time to explore more drinking destinations, from the best bars to the finest pubs in and around the city. Happy sipping!
