diff --git a/hack/RELEASE-CHECKLIST.md b/hack/RELEASE-CHECKLIST.md
index 2fe1a3ce96..ea826512c8 100644
--- a/hack/RELEASE-CHECKLIST.md
+++ b/hack/RELEASE-CHECKLIST.md
@@ -32,9 +32,23 @@ git fetch origin
 git branch -D release || true
 git checkout --track origin/release
 git checkout -b bump_$VERSION
+```
+
+If it's a regular release, we usually merge master.
+```bash
 git merge origin/master
 ```
 
+Otherwise, if it is a hotfix release, we cherry-pick only the commits we want.
+```bash
+# get the commits ids we want to cherry-pick
+git log
+# cherry-pick the commits starting from the oldest one, without including merge commits
+git cherry-pick <commit-id>
+git cherry-pick <commit-id>
+...
+```
+
 ### 2. Update CHANGELOG.md
 
 You can run this command for reference with git 2.0: