How Contract Distilling Works in New Zealand: From Brief to Bottle

Maybe you've dreamed of your own gin. Maybe your business wants a bottle worth gifting, or your bar wants a house pour no one else can serve. Whatever the reason, there's a well-worn path from idea to finished bottle — and it runs through a contract distillery.

At Geraldine Distillery — the maker of award-winning Humdinger gin — we make spirits for other brands as well as our own: our distilled gin, plus spiced rum and flavoured whisky. Here's how the process actually works, start to finish.

What is contract distilling?

Contract distilling is when a working distillery makes and bottles a spirit on another brand's behalf. Instead of building your own distillery — a slow, expensive, licence-heavy exercise — you partner with one that already has the still, the licences, the know-how and a track record. You bring the brand; we bring the making.

It usually takes one of three shapes:

• Your label, our spirit (private label). Put your branding on a proven recipe — starting with our award-winning gin. Fastest and lowest-commitment: ideal for corporate gifts, hospitality house pours, events and retailers who want an exclusive line.
• A bespoke recipe. We develop a spirit that's genuinely yours — botanicals, character and story — and make it to order. A signature gin, spiced rum or flavoured whisky no one else can sell.
• Full contract production. Launching a drinks brand or need a reliable production partner? We make and bottle your product at a genuine, award-winning distillery so you can focus on building the brand.

From brief to bottle: the six steps

1. The brief

It starts with a conversation. What are you making it for — gifts, resale, an event, a new brand? Roughly how many bottles? Any flavour direction in mind? You don't need answers to everything; a rough idea of purpose and numbers is enough to get moving.

2. Choose your path

Together we pick the route that fits: our recipe with your label (quickest), or a bespoke spirit we develop with you. This is where budget, timeline and order size shape the plan — an existing recipe can be turned around far faster than a recipe built from scratch.

3. Recipe & samples

For a bespoke spirit, we distil trial batches and refine the botanicals until the liquid is right. For a private-label run, you're tasting a finished, medal-winning recipe from day one. Either way, nothing scales up until you've approved what's in the glass.

4. Label & format

We confirm the bottle, the format and the label. You can supply your own print-ready artwork, or use our die lines (label templates) built for our bottle shapes — and if you need the artwork created, we can put you in touch with designers.

5. We make it

Once the liquid and label are signed off, we distil (or craft), bottle and label your run in Geraldine. A real distillery, real botanicals, real provenance your customers can taste — not a sticker on someone else's liquid.

6. Delivered

We deliver anywhere in New Zealand, ready for your shelf, your gift boxes or your bar.

What you'll want to know before you start

• Minimum order. Using one of our existing recipes, we can work to almost any order size. For a fully bespoke recipe, the smallest batch is 220 × 700ml in our own bottles (around 1,000 × 700ml — one pallet — if you'd like a different stock bottle).
• Lead time. An existing recipe with your label is the quick route; a bespoke recipe developed from scratch takes considerably longer. If you're aiming for Christmas or a set event date, start early — good spirits can't be rushed.
• Spirits. Gin we distil in-house; we also craft spiced rum and flavoured whisky.
• Pricing. Every project is different, so pricing is quoted per job.

Why make it with Geraldine Distillery

We're a hands-on distillery in Geraldine, South Canterbury — the gateway to adventure. We're best known for our award-winning gin, with gold medals at the NZ Spirits Awards and the NZ Small Batch Gin Awards, and we grow our own fruit at New Zealand's only sloe orchard. When you make with us, you get genuine craft and provenance — and a partner who treats your brand like our own.

Ready to put your brand on a bottle?

Tell us your idea and rough numbers and we'll take it from there. Explore the options on our custom & contract spirits page, or get in touch for a quote. Planning corporate gifts? See our guide to gin for corporate gifting.