Which Regions of New Zealand Produce Spirits?
Auckland leads the country by number of distilleries, but craft spirits are being made from Northland to Southland.
Craft distilling in New Zealand isn't confined to one region — but some areas have a much denser concentration of producers than others. Based on the Distil-Nation NZ directory, here's the current regional spread (by number of listed distilleries):
- Auckland — 29 (the largest concentration by far)
- Canterbury — 14
- Otago — 12
- Waikato — 9
- Bay of Plenty — 8
- Wellington — 7
- Marlborough — 7
- Tasman — 4
- Taranaki — 4
- Southland — 4
- Manawatū-Whanganui — 4
- Hawke's Bay — 3
- West Coast — 1
- Northland — 1
Why Auckland dominates
As New Zealand's largest city, Auckland has the biggest concentration of population, hospitality venues and disposable income to support craft spirit brands — plus easier access to imported ingredients, equipment and distribution. It's a similar dynamic to why Auckland also leads in craft beer and specialty coffee.
Notable regional specialities
- Otago (especially Central Otago and Waitaki) has become closely associated with New Zealand whisky, thanks to producers like Cardrona Distillery and the historic Willowbank-lineage whisky makers around Ōamaru.
- Canterbury has a strong cluster of gin and whisky producers, including Christchurch-based operations.
- Gin production is spread fairly evenly nationwide — it doesn't require the long lead times of whisky, so it's a common starting spirit for new distilleries in almost every region.
This breakdown reflects our own directory data and will shift as new distilleries open — see "How many distilleries are there in New Zealand?" for context on why we treat this as a snapshot rather than a fixed count.