Privacy Policy

Last updated: 7 September 2026

Hidden Bottle Collective respects your privacy. This policy explains what information we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, and the choices you have when using our website and digital tasting experiences.

Information we collect

Depending on how you use Hidden Bottle Collective, we may collect:

• Information you give us — your name, email address, phone number, organisation, event details or anything else you choose to provide through an enquiry or contact form.
• Tasting and event information — a display name, tasting guesses, ratings, tasting notes, session participation and results when you use an HBC consumer tasting, Partner Event or Festival experience.
• Website and technical information — pages visited, session activity, approximate location, browser and device information collected through website analytics and the normal technical operation of the site.

We only ask for information that is reasonably useful for providing our services or responding to you.

How we use your information

We may use your information to:

• respond to enquiries;
• discuss or arrange Hidden Bottle Collective services;
• operate tasting, event and festival experiences;
• show tasting results or comparisons as part of an experience you have joined;
• maintain, secure and improve our website and digital services;
• understand how visitors use the website;
• send marketing or release updates only where you have separately ticked the optional opt-in box;
• meet legal, accounting or regulatory obligations where applicable.

Submitting an enquiry does not automatically subscribe you to marketing emails.

Information shared during tasting experiences

Some HBC experiences are designed to be shared.

If you join a hosted tasting, your display name, guesses, ratings, notes or results may be visible to other participants at your table, the event host, or an authorised Hidden Bottle Collective administrator where this is part of the tasting experience.

We do not use a tasting guess as the authoritative identity of a wine. Wine reveals are controlled by the configured HBC event or release data.

Google Analytics and cookies

We use Google Analytics 4 to understand how people use the Hidden Bottle Collective website.

Google Analytics may collect information including session statistics, approximate location, browser and device information, and pages or interactions on the website. Google Analytics uses first-party cookies such as _ga to distinguish users and sessions.

We use this information to understand website performance and improve the experience. We do not currently use Microsoft Clarity, Meta Pixel, DoubleClick advertising tracking or similar advertising trackers on the HBC website.

Your browser may allow you to block or delete cookies.

Age confirmation

Alcohol-related HBC pages may ask you to confirm that you are 18 or over.

A confirmation flag may be stored in your browser so you are not repeatedly asked during the same browsing experience. This is used for the age-gate experience and is not intended to verify your identity.

Service providers

We use trusted technology providers to operate Hidden Bottle Collective. These may include:

• Netlify for website hosting and for receiving enquiry form submissions;
• Supabase for application, authentication and database services;
• Google Analytics for website analytics;
• Mailchimp for email or mailing-list services where applicable.

These providers may process information on our behalf in New Zealand or overseas.

Where the New Zealand Privacy Act applies, we take reasonable steps to ensure personal information handled by service providers is used and protected appropriately. New Zealand’s Privacy Act contains specific rules relating to disclosures of personal information outside New Zealand.

Marketing emails

We will not automatically add you to a marketing list merely because you submit an enquiry or participate in a tasting.

The only way you join our mailing list is by ticking the optional box on our Contact or Curated Releases form that reads “Yes, send me occasional Hidden Bottle Collective news and future release updates.” That box is never ticked for you, and leaving it alone has no effect on your enquiry — we will still reply.

If you do subscribe, every message we send carries an unsubscribe link, and you can use it at any time. You can also ask us to remove you by emailing hiddenbottlecollective.nz@gmail.com.

New Zealand law requires commercial electronic messages to be sent with appropriate consent and to provide sender identification and an unsubscribe facility.

How long we keep information

We keep personal information only for as long as it is reasonably required for the purpose for which it was collected, for operating our services, or where we need to retain it for legal, security, accounting or dispute-resolution purposes.

When information is no longer reasonably required, we will delete or anonymise it where practicable.

Security

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information against loss, unauthorised access, misuse or disclosure.

No internet or electronic storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

Accessing or correcting your information

You may ask us to provide access to personal information we hold about you, or ask us to correct it.

The Privacy Act 2020 gives individuals rights to request access to and correction of their personal information.

Contact us at hiddenbottlecollective.nz@gmail.com.

Choosing what information to provide

Where a form marks information as required, we need that information to complete the relevant purpose.

For a general enquiry, we require your name and email address so we know who we are speaking with and can respond.

Other enquiry information is optional unless clearly stated otherwise. If you choose not to provide optional information, we can ask for anything else we need during our correspondence with you.

Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as Hidden Bottle Collective develops or our services and technology change.

The latest version will be published on this website with its updated date.

Contact and complaints

If you have a question or concern about how Hidden Bottle Collective handles personal information, please contact:

You may also contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner New Zealand if you have concerns about your privacy rights.