Wine regions: Auckland

Auckland, the largest city, gives its name to the one New Zealand wine region where winery visitors can be assured of finding wines made from grapes grown as far south as Canterbury in the South Island, and are more likely to be offered wine from Marlborough and Hawke’s Bay than the product of a local vineyard. Auckland viticulture declined during the rapid growth of Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay, and Marlborough through the 1970s and 1980s but began to grow in the 1990s as grape-growers adopted canopy-thinning techniques to correct vine vigour. New subregions, including Clevedon, Matakana, and especially Waiheke Island, where some very fine bordeaux blends are made, are now producing high-quality and highly fashionable reds which have helped raise Auckland’s profile and esteem as a wine region.