Nick Nobilo is regarded as a pioneer of the modern New Zealand wine industry. During his time at the helm of the family business, Nobilo wines scored some notable firsts and gained increasing accolades.

• Late 1960s - A young, energetic Nick Nobilo decides to lead the industry away from fortified and hybrids and concentrates on classical vinifera varietals, setting the scene for the creation of the first quality varietals of the 1970’s that produced so much of New Zealand’s early international recognition.

• 1970s - Nobilo Pinotage, Cabernet, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines, which had until then been untried on a commercial scale, become collectors’ items. Nobilo also produces New Zealand’s first commercial quantities of Gewurztraminer in 1972. Within a few years of producing New Zealand’s first German style Muller Thurgau in 1974, the wine becomes the country’s vin du pays with the rest of the industry emulating its success. Nobilo's Muller Thurgau was significantly responsible for converting New Zealand into a wine-drinking nation.

• 1973 - Nick wins the coveted THC trophy for Best Overall New Zealand Wine for the first time and wins it again with his 1976 Cabernet Sauvignon in 1979.

• 1979 - The distinguished Master of Wine, English wine merchant John Avery, is so impressed by the 1976 Nobilo Cabernet Sauvignon that he decides to import it. It’s the first New Zealand wine to be imported on a commercial scale into the United Kingdom.

• 1980s - Nobilo wins the Australia and New Zealand Foundation trophy for the top wine of New Zealand, and the London-based Decanter Trophy for the New Zealand wine with the best export potential. Both wines were barrel fermented Chardonnays. Nick was the first to use new French oak Chardonnay in New Zealand in 1973.

• 1989 - Nick develops New Zealand’s first true generic wine style by blending the highly successful Muller Thurgau with Sauvignon Blanc. He calls the wine ‘White Cloud’ after the Maori name for New Zealand - ‘Aotearoa’ - which means ‘land of the long white cloud’. Large export markets in Europe and Asia are secured with this fresh-tasting, blended wine. Such is its popularity that Nick Nobilo receives a prestigious Export Award from New Zealand’s Prime Minister at the time, the Rt. Hon. Jim Bolger.

• 1990s - A Nobilo Chardonnay fights off stiff international competition to be selected by British Airways as the first New World wine for serving on all of the airline’s European flights. Winemaker Nick Nobilo had correctly gauged what would taste palatable at 35,000 feet. This supply arrangement continues today, more than ten years after it began.

• 2000 - Nobilo Icon, Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 1999, awarded World Champion Sauvignon Blanc at the London Wine and Spirits Competition, one of the world’s top international wine competitions.

• 2000 - After playing a pivotal role keeping his family’s wine business a step ahead, Nick Nobilo oversees the sale of New Zealand’s second-largest public wine company, that originally began as a small privately owned business, to BRL Hardy, one of Australia’s largest wine producers.

• 2000 - Nick embarks on his passionate dream, the development of Vinoptima, a single variety vineyard dedicated to producing world class Gewurztraminer wine. Another first for New Zealand.

• 2003 - Nick Nobilo produces the first vintage of Vinoptima Ormond Gewurztraminer that goes on to achieve international acclaim after its release at the end of 2004.

Vinoptima Estate is as much the result of a wine-making tradition handed down from father to son over hundreds and years as it is to my own 40-plus years of winemaking. Indeed it’s a happy paradox that such a successful new world Gewurztraminer is being produced with due reverence for old world methodologies.

My family hails from the island of Korcula, off the coast of Croatia, where a three hundred year old tradition of wine-making continues to this day on the original family estate. My parents, Nikola and Zuva, brought this Dalmatian passion for wine with them when they immigrated to New Zealand in 1937 and just six years after arriving they were able to create their own vineyard just to the west of Auckland, although persuading a beer-loving population to embrace wine was to take a little bit longer.

Happily for local imbibers and the enjoyment of connoisseurs all over the world, the wine industry flourished in New Zealand’s temperate climate. The Nobilo family played an instrumental role during this time, guiding the fledgling industry towards a bright future in high quality wines rather than the production of hybrid grape varieties and fortified wines.

In 1995, for his services to wine, my father was honored by Queen Elizabeth II with the Order of the British Empire.

Growing up in a family that was so deeply involved in wine exposed me to both tradition and innovation in equal measures. So it was natural that I called on the best of both when the time was right to realise a lifelong ambition, the creation of a world class Gerwurztraminer.