Not since rum was a currency in the young colony of Sydney have Australians had such an interest in distilling their own spirits.

Investment is happening in a rush, and from 10 distilleries a few years ago, there are up to 100 across Australia this year, creating craft gin and whisky.

"The Australian gin industry is more than double the size it was two years ago, and I think more than double the size it was four years before that," Australian Distillers Association president Stu Gregor said.

Mr Gregor is co-owner of the popular Four Pillars Gin in Victoria's Yarra Valley.

"You could probably call that a 300 per cent growth over the last four or five years," he said.

The local spirits industry is generating $1.8 billion in revenue, according to researchers IBIS World, and creating regional jobs and export income.

But the distillers complain that after onerous development regulations and costs, about half of what they make goes in tax, and they want a break.

A craft gin tasting experience is popular at Four Pillars. ( Supplied: Four Pillars )

Winning awards

Australian spirits are the flavour of the moment at international awards.

After two gold medals at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, Four Pillars Gin has been passed in 2017 by a smaller distillery on the NSW central coast.

Distillery Botanica's Rather Royal Gin won gold for a gin developed with lead horticulturist at the Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens, Jimmy Turner.

"We ended up using eight plants from the gardens, including things like mandarin leaf, horehound, lemon verbena, camomile and sage," distiller Philip Moore, owner of Distillery Botanica at Erina, said.

Philip Moore says there are hundreds of varieties of gin available now. ( ABC Rural: Sarina Locke )

"It's got a bit of herb, spice, citrus, floral and bit of juniper. It's meant to be like walking through the botanic gardens on a balmy summer afternoon."

Mr Moore ran a successful wholesale herb nursery for 20 years and only began distilling in 2006, but he said it took him 12 months to make a decent drink.

His distillery is set in a scented garden that grows much of the flowers and herbs he uses in the gin.

"In the floral gin, we've got six flavours, chamomile flowers, rose flowers, macadamia flowers, and we've also got sage, which we grow in another garden," he said.

"It's imported from Germany, a special sage that doesn't have the smell of camphor.

"We also use orris root, which is used to make Chanel No.5, so if you do spill any on yourself you'll smell quite nice."

Native plants are a popular point of difference among distilleries.

"Scottish and American distillers are tending to use their own native plants," Mr Moore said.

"For 100 years there was about four or five varieties of gin available in bottle shops and it was a bit boring.

"Now there's so many different plants going in that there's literally hundreds of gins."

Philip Moore collects rose petals for his gin from his garden at Distillery Botanica. ( ABC Rural: Sarina Locke )

Regional jobs and growth

Since 2013 Four Pillars Gin distillery in Victoria's Yarra Valley has been attracting a lot of tourists, and is the second-most popular attraction in a region famous for its wines.

"Gin is the greatest of all spirits," Mr Gregor said, demonstrating why he is the marketing brains behind the new distillery.

"It makes great classic cocktails, the martini or the negroni or the gin and tonic.

"You have the London dry gin, or the modern Australian gin. It's such a versatile spirit and bartenders love gin."

Mr Gregor said setting up the Four Pillars distillery had been a labour of love, and expensive.

"We built a big distillery, fought local council, we've got government excise issues. It took a little bit of passion and drive and genuine Australian pig-headedness," he said.

The Yarra Valley in Victoria is now known for more than wine, thanks to distilleries such as Four Pillars Gin. ( Supplied: Four Pillars )

Treasury reviews spirit excise

The industry continues to rail against the high tax, saying it is holding back growth.

Spirits are taxed at $82 per litre of alcohol, when the average alcohol content is 40 per cent — a rate 20 times that of wine.

"For every single standard drink in this 700ml bottle, for a 30 ml standard drink you're paying $1 in tax, so that's $1 in excise plus GST," Mr Gregor said.

"It's the most expensive nip of spirit you'll buy anywhere in the western world."

The same bottle of gin sells for $40 less in American bottle shops.

Federal Treasury is currently reviewing the excise, but the industry is not holding its breath, given there have been multiple reviews of the high excise in the past.

Even the Henry Review of tax posited a volumetric tax on spirits, a suggestion that has gone nowhere so far.

The industry can only hope the current trend for cocktails, craft drinks and artisan culture will continue to drive consumers to pay extra for the pleasure.