Born in 1970, Nigel grew up on his family's sheep & cattle farm at Melrose in the southern Flinders ranges. Deciding early on that sheep farming was not for him, he attended Roseworthy Agricultural College, gaining a degree in Natural Resource Management, majoring in soils and land management. It was there that he became interested in Wine.
With little work available in the environmental field, Nigel worked briefly as a cellar hand before enrolling in a graduate certificate of Viticulture at the University of Adelaide. In 1998 he moved to the Barossa to take up the role of Grape Purchasing manager at Yalumba and in 2002, he became the manager of the Yalumba nursery where he promoted alternative varieties, the use of rootstocks, improved clones and clonal selection. With the help of Louisa Rose, Nigel established a small lot winemaking program where clonal wines were produced and used to demonstrate the characteristics of different clones.
He then joined the Peter Lehmann Wines team where liaised with Barossa grape growers and the winemaking team. Seven years later, he took up his current position as head of Viticulture at Torbreck Vintners where he manages over 110ha of vineyard, including 33ha of 70 to 160+ year old Shiraz, Grenache, Mataro and Semillon. Nigel has introduced innovative techniques to improve both sustainability and wine quality and build vineyard resilience.
He is a strong advocate of Barossa wine and best practice viticulture, advocating soil management practices such as no till farming and the use of compost and under vine mulches. Passionate about Barossa terroir, he has been actively involved in the promotion of Barossa Grounds and the Barossa Wine School.
Nigel has contributed to many industry bodies including the Barossa Winemaking Technical Committee, Barossa Vine Selection Society and was one of the founding members of the Barossa Viticulture Technical Group. He has been a board member of the Australian Society of Viticulture & Oenology, the Phylloxera Board of SA, Barossa Grape & Wine Association. In
2015 Nigel was selected to be a participant of the Wine Australia Future Leaders course.
