Matt Bridge has been a professional sailor for much of his life, and as such has spent many years in and around the Caribbean.
“During that time, and in a surprise to exactly no one, I followed true to the sailor stereotype and developed a taste for good quality rum!”
It wasn’t until many years later that Bridge asked himself the question of how exactly one makes rum, and from the purchase of a few books, his research snowballed into buying stills, developing recipes and doing courses until Lunatic & Lover opened in 2019.
Early on in developing the brand's identity, Bridge hit upon the phrase “Imagination Distilled” and continues to try to live by that as a core principle. This idea might manifest itself in something obvious like a wild label design or unique ingredients, but sometimes is more subtle, being as obscure as how they approach some of the finer technical points of fermentation and distilling. Not just frivolous or fanciful marketing speak, Lunatic & Lover’s core principle is underpinned by a deep commitment to quality and integrity.
“When you have to set up a capital intensive business on the smell of an oily rag, it's almost an essential skill!”
Lunatic & Lover is entirely self-funded. Wanting to generate cash flow, some distilleries rush a product out as quickly as possible - but Bridge takes his sweet time. It took two years for Lunatic & Lover to put out their unaged white rum, waiting until they were happy it was exactly how they wanted it. In his commitment to quality, Bridge won’t put his name on anything he doesn’t consider to be excellent.
The first Lunatic & Lover product was launched just after the March 2020 lockdown in New Zealand, meaning the distillery has never operated in an environment where the Covid-19 pandemic did not have an effect on the business. The sorry state of the hospitality and events industry throughout the pandemic has had a profound negative effect on the distilling industry.
“Out of necessity we've created a lean and mean business that will hopefully be in good shape once things come good.”
Being glass half full kind of people at Lunatic & Lover, Bridge knows the pandemic lockdowns and restrictions gave him time.
“There's no way I would have had time to put as much product into casks for ageing, or work on recipe development if it had been business as usual.”
For Bridge, a great spirit isn’t described using technical descriptors of depth of aroma, mouthfeel or finish. He finds experiencing spirits is massively subjective.
“A truly great spirit is one that elicits a response from the taster where they close their eyes, give out a little groan of pleasure and makes them wonder how on earth it's even possible to make such a liquid!”
Bridge discovered the greatness of his own spirits last year, winning a double gold medal for Lunatic & Lover’s Barrel Rested Botanical Rum at the 2021 New Zealand Spirit Awards. Setting up the distillery and launching the brand was an achievement in itself to Bridge, but the nod of recognition from industry peers was tremendously uplifting, and a huge validation to the company.
Sustainability practices at Lunatic & Lover are a constant work in progress, with the team always looking for ways to improve. Right now, packaging is a focus as they try to entirely eliminate plastic.
“Things like bottle weight, stopper material and even label adhesive can all make small differences.”
Currently, Lunatic & Lover has a bottle reuse scheme for their Botanical Rum bottles. With the current state of New Zealand glass recycling being woeful, Bridge doesn’t want to waste the brand’s beautiful bottles (truly the design is award-winning!). Offering every customer the opportunity to send their bottles back, at the distillery’s cost, the bottles can be washed and reused. As incentive for customers to use the scheme, they get a discount on their next Lunatic & Lover purchase.
Bridge loves the act of creating a physical product, tangible for people to see, hold, smell and taste and hopes in the future to see Lunatic & Lover in a custom-built facility - operating as a venue giving visitors a unique experience amongst “lots of lovely big shiny copper stills”. Mostly, he is excited to take Lunatic & Lover international.
“There's a real opportunity for New Zealand distillers to make a quality reputation for themselves on the world stage right now and we think our rum and our brand are in a prime position to be in the thick of it!”
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