Local family distillery Jones and Smith are offering you the chance to buy a very special keepsake —with all the money going a good cause.

Founded in 2017, Jones and Smith Distillery at Spring hill has been a labour of love for business partners Tony and Dot Jones, their daughter Kylie and son-in-law Nic Smith. The small family operation has occupied hundreds of hours with very little reward to show for it until now.

“We've been laying down our whiskey over the last couple of years. Legally it has to age a minimum of two years before you can sell it, but it can take a lot longer depending on the barrel size,” said Kyle smith.

“So that has been our primary focus but leading up to this summer we've really been testing and trialling gin recipes and finally we've got it right and we are ready to take the gin to the commercial market!”

With the release of their limited-edition Epoch Signature Dry and Navy Strength Gin, Jones and Smith have decided to auction off their very first number one bottles to give a little to those affected by this devastating bushfire season.

“We’ve all been watching the bushfires, which has been a terrible thing and your heart goes out to anyone who has been affected by them,” said Kylie.

“We wanted to do something unique and I suppose beneficial with our release. I know some other distilleries like to keep that number one on their shelf and it was hard to part with, because there is a lot of years of blood, sweat and tears that got us to this point. But if we can do something good, why not?”

To bid on the Signature Dry Gin (1 of 312) and Navy strength Gin (1 of 239), visit jonesandsmithdistillery.com.au and look for the auction tab.

Remember it is all for a good cause, so don’t expect a bargain!

 “If they are not at the right price we might have to bid for them ourselves! It has been too much hard work to see them go easily, that's for sure,” said Kylie.

The auction closed at 7pm 8 December. All money raised will go the Salvation Army Disaster Appeal.