Our Story
Son of a wheatfarming family from the west coast of South Africa, Nico gravitated to winemaking during his years at Elsenburg Agricultural College in Stellenbosch, where he completed his studies in 1979.
After short stints as assistant winemaker at cellars in Stellenbosch and Tulbagh he decided to pack his belongings and headed for Germany's oldest wine school, LVWO Weinsberg in Heilbronn, which he attended from 1984 to 1986.
During his time in Germany he would meet his wife, Petra, who was practising as a pediatrician in a nearby town at the time.
After returning to South Africa, he became the country's first "flying winemaker", spending half the year running a cellar in Stellenbosch, the other half operating a chateau in the Languedoc region of southern France.
During the family's time in France they not only discovered a new culture and way of living, but Nico's dream of creating his own wines started to take shape.
This dream turned into reality with the maiden vintage of the Mas Nicolas in 1999.
Over almost 4 decades of winemaking, Nico has won many accolades, among others:
- General Smuts trophy at the 1991 SA National Young Wine Show for a Cabernet Sauvignon
- First winemaker to win 5 double gold medals at the Veritas Awards in 1993
- First South African winemaker to be listed in the Wine Spectator Top 100 with a Shiraz in 1996
- Warren Winiarski Trophy for Cabernet Sauvignon at the 2006 International Wine and Spirits Competition (IWSC) in London