Saint Felix celebrates the cultural diversity that makes up Australia, producing spirits that reflect a love for worldly flavours. We are located in the sunny, bayside suburb of Mordialloc, Victoria. Our distillery focusses on fruit-based spirits in brandy, aperitivo and contemporary forms. We’re also Australia’s first distillery to produce mastic gin.
From the alpine regions of Japan to the forests of northern Greece, we strive to find ingredients that push the boundaries of the distilling process. Both underrated and undiscovered flavour explorations define our story, which we are excited to share with those adoring of great spirits. Our bottles are for the rookie and connoisseur alike.
Our collection of stills honour the evolution of distilling. An 18th-century Portuguese copper pot still produces our brandy and blood orange aperitivo, while an innovative rotary evaporator – a technology uncommonly found in the Australian distillery landscape – is used for our yuzu and green tea spirit and our gin. Whether you’re enjoying our drops on or offsite, or are merely curious about us, we thank you for taking interest in our journey.
Our stills
Saint Felix unites the extensive evolution of distillation under one roof. Our processes and machinery venture back centuries before us – for not one still is fitting for all spirits and desires. While innovation in distillation is always sought after, we look back to stills loved by generations before us, knowing that sometimes the newcomers simply can’t do as good a job.
Old School – Alembic Pot Still
The distillation process traditionally relied on copper pot stills, also known as alembic stills, first created in the 18th century. We are privileged to produce our brandy and citrus aperitivo in a historic Portuguese alembic still, not that we really know how it got here. It’s a bit of a mystery – potentially smuggled in back in the 60s.
Alembic stills follow the pot distillation process. Liquids and flavours, comprising herbs and fruit, are placed into the body of the still, known as the “pot” or sometimes the “kettle”. The mixture is heated and produces a vapour, which travels through the neck’s cool copper coils and condensed to form the final spirit. Leftover contents are cleaned out of the still and the process commences again. You may have seen large, industrial column stills at other distilleries – which are undoubtedly brilliant – but the good ol’ pot still remains king in the production of various spirits.
New School – Rotary Evaporator
The rotary evaporator, affectionately known as the “rotovap”, is one of our favourite toys to play with. It holds the power of extracting low-boiling compounds from a mixture – something traditional stills are often unable to do successfully.
This is incredibly important at Saint Felix, particularly when it comes to the art of fruit-based distilling. We use the rotovap to craft our Wild Forest Gin and Yuzu and Green Tea Spirit. The heating points of traditional stills are too harsh on fruits like yuzu, with the potential to burn. We’re making no compromises on our spirits. The rotovap boils contents at a much cooler temperature, allowing pure oils to be retained and come through confidently in the final product.
Xavier Nalty
Saint Felix is driven by Xavier Nalty, a chef with extensive culinary experience. At 16, he moved to Melbourne and worked in top Australian restaurants, including Vue de Monde and The Rocks, where he was head chef for a decade. His passion for distilling grew alongside his culinary career. After cold-calling Calvados Christian Drouin Distillery in Normandy, he trained with third-generation distiller Guillaume Drouin, gaining deep knowledge in brandy-making.
Back in Melbourne, Xavier honed his distilling skills at Craft and Co, developing recipes for various businesses. Inspired by his culinary journey, he founded Saint Felix, where he celebrates Melbourne’s multicultural flavours through unique spirits. He plans to offer masterclasses that combine his spirits with food experiences.
Who was 'Felix' Reader?
Born in Germany, 1850, Felix Reader was an intrepid explorer and distiller. He set foot across the globe and eventually settled in the quaint country town of Dimboola, western Victoria.
An avid forager, botanist and chemist, Felix blended and distilled remedies to aid the people of Victoria. Even when travel proved incredibly difficult (perhaps even more difficult than now) he didn’t hold back. His admiration of foreign lands could not be contained, achieving proficiency in four languages along the way.
We are by no means blessed with the same medicinal talents as Felix Reader, but aim to bring another sort of joy and relief to our followers. Felix Reader’s limitless curiosity inspires us – as such we’ve named our sanctuary in honour of him.
