A micro distillery operating from a 25sqm shed behind a law firm on the Coast is proving to be a high achiever.
The Law Artisan Distillery recently won two silver medals at the 2026 Melbourne Royal Australian International Spirits Awards for its Lemon Myrtle Gin.
Distiller and former lawyer Joseph Riba makes, bottles and serves the spirits at the Duporth Avenue premises.
“I make the spirits, bottle them, put the labels on them and then stand behind the bar and pour them,” he said.
“It’s just me.”
Mr Riba handpicked the lemon myrtle from a Buderim location and made around 100 bottles of the gin that he entered into the competition.
“I love it when I can grow the thing I distil,” he said.
“That’s part of what drew me to distilling in the first place.”
Mr Riba also makes vodka, limoncello, amari and bitter liqueurs, along with botanical distillates and concentrates.
“I don’t have to make thousands of bottles of anything,” he said.
“If I have an idea, I can try it. Sometimes it becomes a product and sometimes it’s just an interesting experiment.”
The distillery takes its name from the law firm Mr Riba established on the Sunshine Coast in 1998.
When Mr Riba retired from legal practice in 2024, after a 33-year career as a lawyer, he converted the small storage shed behind the firm into a licensed micro-distillery. The still, production area and bar occupy the same room.
“People quite often walk in and tell me how cool the place is,” Mr Riba said.
“I think part of it is that they aren’t expecting to find something like this down a laneway in Maroochydore.”
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Mr Riba honoured a vow he made to himself as a teenager and retired young.
His father was a lawyer, as is his identical twin brother became a lawyer on Wall Street, Manhattan, while Mr Riba’s son is nearing completion of his law degree.
Tragically, Mr Riba’s father died at work before his teenage sons had completed their law degrees.
“I knew at 17 that I wasn’t going to spend my whole working life as a lawyer,” Mr Riba said.
“I thought I’d be out by 45. In the end it took me until 55.”
He had always planned to pursue another career.
“I’d decided a very long time ago that there had to be another chapter,” Mr Riba said.
“Eventually you realise that if you’re going to have one, you actually have to start it.”
The distillery is now offering small Saturday workshops where visitors can handle and smell botanicals, learn about distillation, watch the still operate, taste spirits and experiment with blending their own gin.
“I have a lot of fun with the people who come in,” Mr Riba said.
“It’s a tiny space, so you end up talking to everyone.
“Quite often we end up tasting something I’ve been experimenting with.”
Meanwhile, Coast rum distillery Nil Desperandum was named Champion Australian Distiller, taking the new Medium classification at the Melbourne Royal Australian International Spirits Awards.
Its rum, The Triple Six, won the trophy for Best Rum, the second time in three years, and picked up four gold medals across the range.
