Nicole Hodgson was born in 1975 in Adelaide to Rex and Noreen. At the age of five, her family returned to the Barossa and settled on three acres in Altona, Lyndoch. She attended St Jakobi Lutheran Primary School and Faith Lutheran College.

After completing a certificate in Commercial Office studies, she began working in the Penfolds Winemaking office at Nuriootpa in December 1992.

Her passion for wine quickly materialised due to the influence of her work colleagues, moving into Penfolds cellar door sales in 1998. In 2001, she transferred to Seppeltsfield Wines.

Since then, Nicole has been a volunteer in numerous capacities in the wine and tourism arena, including the Barossa Vintage Festival and Barossa Gourmet Weekend and served as chair of the Cellar Door Managers group (now Cellar Circle) and was a participant in the Barossa Futures Leaders program.

She was a founding committee member of the Seppeltsfield Road Business Alliance in 2001, presenting 20 Shakespeare in the Vines events and has been chairperson since 2020.

Her impressive list of awards and accolades include winning the state, national and international Wine Tourism Awards for Seppeltsfield Estate in 2016 after 4 years of tourism re-development under the ownership of Warren Randall, then going on to win the Hall of Fame for best Winery, Brewery or Distillery at the state tourism awards in 2021.

Also in 2021, Nicole was the recipient of the award for Contribution of an Individual to Tourism at the South Australian Tourism Awards.

Since joining Elders Real Estate in Gawler in October 2021, Nicole won the Outstanding New Talent 2022 for property management in South Australia.

Nicole and her partner, Richard live at Seppeltsfield on three acres.