Where to make your own booze in Melbourne

The Mornington Peninsula is particularly renowned for still wines like chardonnay and pinot noir, but it also boasts some cracking sparkling that you should definitely get in on. And if you're a bit particular about how sweet or dry your bubbly is, you can head over to Foxeys Hangout to make a bottle that's perfect for your palate. With guidance from winemaker Michael Lee, you'll get a tutorial on the final stages of making fine sparkling wine: disgorgement, dosage and corkage. You'll then taste your way across sparkling wines "dosed" at different sugar levels to determine how sweet or dry your own blend should be. Choose your base wine (chardonnay? pinot noir?) to finish off the blend, and then receive your bottle of perfect sparkling. The experience is $75 for two people, including tastings and the take-home bottle. Learn more here. 

This gin distillery on the sunny Mornington Peninsula was among the earliest pioneers of the gin masterclass in Australia, and it remains a popular experience to this day. For $165 per person, punters will be greeted with a cheese platter and a G&T before embarking on a tour of the facility and learning the basics of the distillation process. Next, you'll be guided through the process of blending your own gin from a vast range of vapour-infused botanicals. When you land on your perfect combo, you'll bottle up a 500ml bottle to take home with you. Sign up here.

After finding a concrete fermenter under his house in Thornbury, Noisy Ritual founder Cam Nicol and friends enlisted the help of winemaker friend Alex Byrne and started making their own wine right here in Melbourne. Though the scale is much larger now, the guys at Noisy Ritual are still opening up the winemaking process to whoever is interested - and that’s where you come in. Choose between a two-hour blending workshop ($100pp) where you'll create your own signature blend and a 2.5-hour blending and bottling workshop ($130pp) where you'll also learn how to bottle, cork and label your blend. Learn more here. 

Once known as Mothers Ruin for its dangerous tendency to intoxicate the English in the 18th century, gin has experienced a renaissance over the past decade. And within Australia, perhaps no distiller is more well-known for its juniper-infused spirit than Four Pillars in Healesville. With the Healesville Maker Session, you'll join one of the distillers for a tasting before assisting with distilling a batch of gin. A 700mL bottle of this gin will be posted to you after the class, and you'll also walk away with a goodie bag containing a 200ml bottle of rare dry gin, a jar of orange marmalade and some Fever-Tree tonic water. The 2.5-hour class will run you $250 dollars and can be booked here. 

Brown Brothers is one of the country's oldest and most loved wineries, its Milawa vineyard located in the northern reaches of the King Valley in northeast Victoria. The winery was established all the way back in 1889 and has been a family-owned company throughout its long history, with the third and fourth generations now running the show. Keen to learn the secrets to blending the award-winning wine? Head to the cellar door in Milawa for a masterclass where you'll blend, bottle and label your creation to take home. Classes are $70 per person and run for an hour, and you can book in here. 

Located in the Moorabool Valley in Geelong, this family-owned vineyard founded in 1982 features 60 hectares of vines planted on the rich limestone soils of the valley. If you've ever wanted to tick 'become a winemaker' off your bucket list, now's your chance: Austin's is offering a 'Rent a Vine' experience where, over the course of 12 months, you'll tend to your row of vines and eventually make wine from it. Learn more here.

This urban bar and distillery in Richmond first opened its doors in 2018, and now you too can learn the tricks of the small-scale gin making trade. You'll join master distiller Brogan, who will guide you through her process on developing new gins and selecting botanicals. After learning the ropes and enjoying some snacks, you'll assist with making a 'micro' batch of gin in her benchtop R&D still – and you'll receive a 500ml bottle to take home with you. The three-hour class will run you $195 and you can book in here.