Crafted Better With Nature.Uniquely Australian Heritage.
Est. 2014 in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia
From the unique climate of the Adelaide Hills to the incredible Australian ingredients we use to the spirit of adventure and innovation we bring to every product, our Australian identity is fundamental to everything we do at 78 Degrees.
Our Australian native and traditional ingredients are harvested at the height of their natural season and distilled at a gentle 78 Degrees, the boiling point of alcohol, to ensure maximum natural flavour every time.
A lot of people talk about sustainability, but won’t actually tell you how they do it. We believe that if you’re going to talk the talk, you have to walk the walk, and be open and honest about how you’re doing it. For us, it’s not about being perfect, it’s just about striving to be better every day.
Founded by Sacha La Forgia in 2014 after working 13 vintages in famed wine regions across the world as a winemaker, Sacha returned to the Adelaide Hills where he custom built a coper still and developed quickly developed 78° Classic Gin.
It quickly gained a reputation as a high quality small batch gin showing unique Australian characteristics while taking out many awards and accolades along the way.
In 2016, Steve Dorman and Toby Kline of The Hills Cider Company joined Sacha and together they embarked upon the next part of the 78 Degrees journey – expanding the product range and increasing production capabilities.
Located in the Adelaide Hills, our distillery is located at LOT.1OO as well as a brewery, cellar door and restaurant. All of our water comes from three onsite bores naturally replenished with rainwater, and we have 300 megawatts of solar panels meaning we almost never use municipal electricity.
All of our wastewater is treated and reused, all of our organic waste is repurposed as fertiliser and our landfill waste is now down to one skip bin per week for the entire site, and we are close to entirely eliminating single-use plastics from our operations.
All of our white spirits are made from leftovers of the winemaking process, rather than water and power intensive grains. Our whiskies are made primarily using locally-grown, unmalted barley which is the least power and water-intensive grains we have access to.
