From a Handful of Distilleries to More Than 100: The Story Behind the NZ Gin Boom

Edited by Aj

In 2010, Lighthouse Gin from the Wairarapa became one of the first modern New Zealand craft gins to reach the market, at a time when the local spirits industry was barely a footnote. What followed over the next fifteen years is one of the more surprising stories in New Zealand drinks: a country better known for wine and beer and cider quietly built one of the most distinctive craft gin cultures in the Southern Hemisphere.

It didn’t happen by accident, and it didn’t happen overnight. The NZ gin boom has specific causes, specific people behind it, and a flavour identity that’s genuinely its own.

What Opened the Door

Distilling in New Zealand has always needed a licence. Commercial producers must work from a Customs-licensed area and pay excise on every litre, which kept the sector tiny for decades. What changed in the 2010s was the economics: small copper stills became affordable, the global gin revival created demand, and a wave of producers decided the paperwork was worth it.

Gin was the natural first choice for many of them. It doesn’t need years in barrel the way whisky does, so a distillery can get a product to market in months while its whisky quietly ages. And the botanical recipe is, at least in theory, endlessly customisable. That flexibility turned out to matter enormously for what NZ gin became.

Why Native Botanicals Changed What NZ Gin Tastes Like

The most interesting thing about NZ gin isn’t that there’s a lot of it. It’s that so much of it tastes like nowhere else. Producers started reaching for the New Zealand landscape: kawakawa, with its peppery, herbal bite; horopito, which delivers a slow-building heat; mānuka, adding a honeyed earthiness; and karamū, which National Distillery Co in Hawke’s Bay pairs with kawakawa in its Native gin.

Scapegrace, founded in Auckland in 2014 and now distilling at its own site on the shores of Lake Dunstan in Central Otago, is one of the country’s most recognised gin brands internationally. Its Black expression uses botanicals including aronia berry, sweet potato and butterfly pea flower, and it shifts colour when tonic is added, which made it genuinely novel in a crowded global market. Meanwhile, Dancing Sands in Takaka, Golden Bay, works local mānuka into its gin, giving it a honeyed, gently spiced character.

The terroir argument for gin is contested, but in New Zealand’s case the native plants really do produce something distinct. In a side-by-side tasting, a gin built on kawakawa or horopito is usually easy to pick from a classic London dry.

The Producers Who Built the Scene From the Ground Up

The South Island deserves particular attention. Elemental Distillers in Marlborough uses wild-foraged kawakawa in its Roots gin, Dancing Sands works with local mānuka in Golden Bay, and The Spirits Workshop in Christchurch takes juniper seriously while layering in local character. Wellington became another focal point, partly because of its bar culture and the willingness of good hospitality venues to take a chance on local products before they had national recognition.

Curiosity Gin, made by The Spirits Workshop, is worth naming because it shows how a New Zealand gin can sit close to classic styles while still tasting of home, with native botanicals such as kawakawa, horopito and mānuka in the mix. It’s a reminder that the NZ gin scene isn’t one style. There’s room for the bold and the understated.

For anyone exploring the regions and producers in depth, the variation across distilleries is worth paying attention to rather than treating NZ gin as a single category.

How New Zealand Drinks Its Gin

The cocktail culture around NZ gin has matured alongside the spirits themselves. Bartenders have moved beyond the basic gin and tonic to build drinks that show off what’s interesting about these local spirits: kawakawa and cucumber, horopito and grapefruit. The botanical character holds up to experimentation in a way that more generic gins often don’t. At home, a long gin and tonic with a slice of citrus that suits the gin’s botanicals is still the best way to get to know a new bottle.

Key Takeaways

• No single law change caused the NZ gin boom: a global gin revival and affordable small-batch equipment set it off in the 2010s.
• Native botanicals like kawakawa, horopito and mānuka give NZ gin a flavour identity that’s genuinely distinct from European styles.
• Marlborough, Golden Bay, Canterbury, Central Otago and the Wairarapa have emerged as key producing regions.
• Producers like Scapegrace, Dancing Sands, Elemental Distillers and The Spirits Workshop (maker of Curiosity Gin) each represent different approaches within the broader NZ gin scene.
• The scene spans beginner-friendly bottles and more considered expressions worth seeking out for your next tasting.

Frequently Asked Questions