The Nugan Group was founded in 1940 when a young Alfredo Nugan emigrated from Spain with his family to start a small fruit and vegetable packing operation in Griffith, New South Wales. Nugan's daughter in-law Michelle became responsible for the Group’s renaissance into one of Australia’s most successful agricultural enterprises. Looking beyond Australia’s shores, Nugan became the largest exporter of niche juice products to Asia in the Southern Hemisphere with production in excess of 70,000 tonne per annum.
Michelle Nugan was named a NSW Telstra Business Women of the Year in 1996 and Australian Export Hero in 2000. Following in her mother’s footsteps, Tiffany was a 2004 Finalist for the NSW Telstra Young Business Women of the Year. The Nugans are passionate about the Riverina, fully sponsoring two annual programs to develop business skills in the region - WIRED, Women Innovating Rural Enterprise Development, and the Riverina Young Achiever Program.
In 1993 Nugan Group further diversified its operations planting vineyards and selling fruit under contract. From there, winemaking was a natural progression. Matthew Nugan built the winemaking estate into one of Australia’s Top 20 Wine Exporters. Nugan Estate Chief Wine Maker, Daren Owers, was named the Wine Society’s Young Wine Maker of Year 2004 - Member’s Choice. Today Nugan Estate owns 590 hectares of vineyards in Australia’s finest wine growing regions, making it the 18th largest vineyard holders in Australia.
Nugan Estate’s wineworks are located at Willbriggie, 30km south of Griffith. Using the best of old world techniques and new world technology, the winery offers a state of the art facility, built for quality wine-making, which allows the wine-making team to combine the latest technology with old and new wine-making practices to ensure Nugan Estate’s wines are of the highest quality. Manuka Grove is the Nugan family’s vineyard at Hanwood in the Riverina (15km south of Griffith), where the family home is located. Originally planted by the late Ken Nugan with citrus, today this 46 hectare vineyard is planted with Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Merlot, Sangiovese and Durif – being home to Nugan Estate’s award winning Manuka Grove Durif. Fully drip irrigated, the vineyard benefits from complete water management and best vineyard practices to produce premium quality grape.
Frasca’s Lane is the Nugan family’s vineyard in King Valley, north east Victoria. Situated in its own unique cool-climate micro-climate, this 100 hectare vineyard is fully drip irrigated, drawing its water from a 400 mega litre dam that feeds the picturesque trout stream dividing the property. This property is planted with 88 hectares of premium wine grape including Riesling, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Pinot Noir, Sangiovese and Shiraz. McLaren Parish is in the McLaren Vale in South Australia. As McLaren Vale is home to Australia’s best Shiraz, this 10 hectare vineyard is solely dedicated to producing the best premium Shiraz possible. McLaren Parish is protected from rainfall variation, being drip irrigated from water held in two dams and protected by a license to pump nine mega litres of surface water.
Cookoothama is the Nugan family’s vineyard at Darlington Point on the Murrumbidgee River in the Riverina (40km south of Griffith). Cookoothama is the aboriginal word meaning “fertile land” and has been the name of this property since the 1800s. With fertile soils spanning 970 hectares, the property is divided into 335 hectares of premium wine grape (including Semillon, Verdehlo, Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz) and 325 hectares of olives. Cookoothama is protected from rainfall variation by a fully integrated drip irrigation system, which includes four bores and five licences to pump from the Murrumbidgee River flowing along the southern border of the property.
Talinga Park is the Nugan family’s vineyard at Hillston in the Riverina (108km west of Griffith). Talinga Park comprises of 700 hectares of sandhill country divided into 275 hectares of citrus and 115 hectares of premium wine grape. The citrus from this property supplies the family’s packing operations. While the grape ensures Nugan Estate can provide more approachable products at reasonable prices to the consumer taking advantage of Nugan Estate’s premium wine-making practices.
