A Humdinger of a Result at the 2026 NZ Small Batch Gin Awards
The results of the 2026 NZ Small Batch Gin Awards are out, and we're still grinning. Every gin we entered came home with a medal: Gold for our Dry Gin, Gold for our Sloe Gin, Silver for our Citrus Gin, and Bronze for our Pink Gin, Rum Barrel Aged Gin and Pekapeka Gin — and on top of all that, Geraldine Distillery was named Sustainable Distillery of the Year.
Back-to-back Gold for Dry Gin
Our Dry Gin took Gold for the second year running — back-to-back wins at the 2025 and 2026 awards. For a classic, juniper-led gin built on Canterbury barley grown just down the road, consistency is the whole point: the judges' confirmation that batch after batch is landing where we want it means more to us than any single medal could.
Gold for the orchard
If the Dry Gin gold is about consistency, the Sloe Gin gold is about place. Every sloe in the bottle was grown and handpicked at our own orchard — over 1,000 blackthorn trees near Geraldine, the only sloe orchard in New Zealand. And here's the bit we love: the winning vintage is the one on the shelf right now. Each year's harvest makes one batch, that batch gets entered, and this one came home with Gold.
Silver for Citrus Gin
Our Citrus Gin — sun-soaked Gisborne oranges and lemons with a hint of ginger — added a Silver to the Gold it won at the 2023 NZ Spirits Awards. It remains the bottle we reach for first when someone at the cellar door says "I don't usually like gin."
A clean sweep in bronze
Rounding out the set, three more medals: Bronze for our berry-rich Pink Gin, Bronze for our Rum Barrel Aged Gin, and Bronze for Pekapeka Gin, our foraged-horopito winter release. Six entries, six medals — not a single gin came home empty-handed, and that's the stat we'll quietly keep.
Sustainable Distillery of the Year
The award we're proudest of isn't about what's in the glass. Geraldine Distillery was named Sustainable Distillery of the Year, recognising the way we make everything: rooftop solar that generates more electricity over the year than we use, distilling processes that get our water use under 2.5 litres per litre of gin bottled, botanicals grown on our own patch — the orchard included — and the bottle refill programme at the cellar door. None of it was done for a trophy, which is exactly why this one feels so good. The full story is on our sustainability page.
Thank you
To the judges and the team behind the NZ Small Batch Gin Awards — thank you for the care you put into championing small distilleries, and for looking past the liquid to how it's made. To our small crew here in Geraldine, who hand-prepare every botanical and hand-pick every sloe: this is your work on the podium. And to everyone who has poured, gifted or shared a Humdinger over the years — you're the reason we get to keep doing this.
Here's to celebrating the little things. 🐝
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