Alfredo and his wife Annelise founded the family business by selling locally produced seasonal fruit and vegetables by advertising in newspapers, a traditional mail-order business. Alfredo subsidised his income by working in local wineries during vintage. Alfredo and Annelise’s love for wine led to the purchase of a vineyard commencing the family’s wine journey. They were very successful in developing their business, introducing many innovations from around the world, always ensuring quality was second to none. He was successful is supplying the major supermarket chains and the allied defence forces across Australia as well as being successful exporters of fresh produce to the world.

In 1965 Alfredo’s son Ken Nugan took over the family business. Ken continued the tradition of quality and innovation and further developed the produce business. He also built a large state of the art juice factory, utilising previously discarded produce from across Australia. Ken was a market leader in the produce and juice industry.

In 1986 Ken passed away unexpectedly, leaving his wife Michelle to take over the business during the recession of the 1980’s. Ultimately Michelle was very successful, her biggest achievement was becoming the largest producer of carrot juice in the southern hemisphere primarily being exported to the tough Japanese market. Michelle was recognised for her success by becoming the Telstra Business Women of the Year and the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the year.

In 1993 the family business further diversified it’s operations, planting more vineyards selling fruit under contract to the then Southcorp wine company. Nugan Estate started making wine with it’s first commercial vintage in 2000. Our state-of-the-art winery was built in the Riverina with the first vintage crush in 2002. Nugan Estate sources wine grapes from premium vineyards in the Riverina, King Valley, Langhorne Creek, Coonawarra and McLaren Vale.

To date, Nugan Estate has collected 42 Trophies and over 1,500 Medals including 206 Gold Medals. Daren Owers, Nugan Estate’s Chief Winemaker, was the 2004 Wine Society’s Young Wine maker of the Year (Members Choice). Nugan Estate is and continues be one of Australia’s true agricultural success stories.