The distillery was approached by a handful of regional medical professionals who said that other distilleries around the state were taking similar steps and creating their own hand sanitiser and wanted to know if Baker Williams would consider doing the same.

Nathan said it the whole process wasn't easy and the sanitiser was never intended to be a mainstream commercial product. They used the remainder of their spirit to make it and most of the small batch they created is already gone.

"We actually made a very conscious decision right from the get go, it wasn't going to be available from the cellar door, because we didn't want to trigger a rush of people coming here," Nathan said.

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"We've sold a lot of it to local businesses. We said, who are we going to go out for?

"We had discussions around, 'who are we going after and who's it important to get this to?', and we said local businesses who've got staff who are still working.

"We said we've got to get this to number one, the folks that approached us about it and number two, some of the emergency services and then the local business community has got people out there who are having contact with other people, as some mechanism to try and help them be safe in what they're doing.

The bottle contains a short message from the Baker Williams team.

We used the very last of our spirit to make this with a hope that members of our community can be a little safer. Pls look after each other. See you on the flipside.

The distillery's cellar door remains closed, much like a lot of shopfronts, businesses and cellar doors around the country. However they are continuing to fulfil orders through their website.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues and the world adjusts to a changing way of life, businesses here and abroad are feeling the effects of the Government's strict social distancing and isolation guidelines.

It isn't all doom and gloom, there are signs that we've successfully started to 'flatten the curve' - a term which refers to a graph of new cases starting to decrease and eventually decline.

On Wednesday, the Mid-Western Region recorded its first new confirmed COVID-19 case in more than a week, bringing the total number to five in our local government area (LGA).

Nathan said he expects a regional tourism boom once the pandemic is over and restrictions are lifted.

"Life as we know it has changed. However - and the big however is - I sincerely believe a lot of the clientele that our region services are currently sitting at home gradually going stir crazy and I think and I hope that once those restrictions lift, people are going to be gagging to be out of their home," Nathan said.

"I think the region as a whole, I think it stands to do very well on the flip side, because we are a great domestic location that is right near some big centres and it's a great getaway experience where you can kind of shut off the city life and get out and experience something completely different.

"I think Mudgee's going to cop a groundswell once the doors do open."

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