Imbue Distillery

Two couples with hatted-restaurant backgrounds, the Sheards and their friends Luke and Nikki, run this small distillery in the hills of Research, north-east of Melbourne. Their first gin, Suburban, was built on botanicals foraged nearby, muntries, dandelion, prickly pear, and the range has since grown to whisky, brandy, vodka and agave. Little goes to waste: spent grain feeds local goats, offcuts become salt and marmalade, and bottles come back for refilling. Tours and tastings run at the distillery door.