diff --git a/lib/voxpupuli/release/rake_tasks.rb b/lib/voxpupuli/release/rake_tasks.rb
index f8c78b5..70bb8b2 100644
--- a/lib/voxpupuli/release/rake_tasks.rb
+++ b/lib/voxpupuli/release/rake_tasks.rb
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
 
   # idempotently create tags
   g = Blacksmith::Git.new
-  Rake::Task["module:tag"].invoke unless g.exec_git("tag -l v#{v}").strip == "v#{v}"
+  Rake::Task["module:tag"].invoke unless g.has_version_tag?(v)
 
   v_inc = m.increase_version(v)
   v_new = "#{v_inc}-rc0"
diff --git a/voxpupuli-release.gemspec b/voxpupuli-release.gemspec
index e5a7399..e51a5a4 100644
--- a/voxpupuli-release.gemspec
+++ b/voxpupuli-release.gemspec
@@ -18,5 +18,5 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |s|
 
   # Runtime dependencies, but also probably dependencies of requiring projects
   s.add_runtime_dependency 'rake'
-  s.add_runtime_dependency 'puppet-blacksmith'
+  s.add_runtime_dependency 'puppet-blacksmith', '>= 4.0.0'
 end