Made with respect
keeping spirits high and our footprint small
At Bluff Distillery, we don’t talk about sustainability like it’s a trend — it’s just how things are done down here. Our home at Ocean Beach breathes new life into an old industrial site, powered by the same grit that built it generations ago. We work with the land, the sea, and the people around us to craft spirits that give back more than they take.
Reigniting the spirit of Bluff
At Bluff Distillery, sustainability isn’t a checkbox — it’s the foundation of everything we do. Situated within New Zealand’s largest aquaculture development, we’ve built a distillery that works in harmony with its surroundings, respecting the land, sea, and community that make Bluff unique.
A distillery with deep roots
Bluff Distillery stands at Ocean Beach — once home to one of the largest freezing works in the southern hemisphere. Today, the site has been transformed into a world-class aquaculture hub, connecting sustainable seafood farming, tourism, and renewable land use. Our gin, tasting room, and restaurant are part of a broader vision to revitalise Bluff through innovation and care for its environment.
A connected ecosystem
Every part of the Bluff site is interlinked — the gin distillery, aquaculture farms, tourism experiences, and energy systems are designed to work together. From Pāua and whitebait farming to the planned land-power initiative, each element supports the next, forming a circular model that prioritises regeneration over consumption.
Bluff Distillery exists in balance with the ocean that surrounds it - a living example of how craft and sustainability can thrive together
Smarter water use
Water preservation is central to our production. Our copper still, Hannah, is cooled by a closed-loop system that draws icy seawater from Foveaux Strait. Using seawater cooling, we save over 1,000,000 litres of freshwater each year.
Efficiency in every drop
The average distillery uses 28.51 litres of water to produce a single bottle of spirits. By combining seawater cooling with reverse osmosis filtration, Bluff Distillery reduces that to just 2.6 litres per bottle - pretty cool! It's nearly freezing in fact.
