Nic Peterkin
ROGUE AND REFINED
In the world-renowned Margaret River wine region, Nic Peterkin is helping to lead a new generation of creative winemakers with his wines that push the boundaries – but never for the sake of quality.
Nic is an innovator, driving the Australian wine community forward for the next generation and intent on adding to the industry rather than taking anything away. His wines are carefully crafted to evoke emotion: new flavours from alternative varieties, classics impeccably crafted and distinctive, wax-topped bottles that stand out from the crowd.
Making his mark
Being a winemaker was the last thing Nic wanted to do. He has strong roots in Margaret River winemaking – his dad Mike founded Pierro winery and his grandparents were region pioneers Kevin and Di Cullen of Cullen Wines – but being given the “bad” jobs as a youngster put him off.
“I was weeding the vineyard, I was cleaning the floors, I was cleaning the tanks… I’d be like, there’s nothing romantic about winemaking, why would anybody want to go into it?” he says.
But over time, Nic grew to love winemaking. It allowed him to travel the world, working vintages in both hemispheres and learning the ropes. As well as studying science, commerce and oenology, and working as a flying winemaker around the globe, he worked with his dad at Pierro, everywhere from the cellar door to the vineyard.
According to Nic, it’s Australia’s openness and acceptance of new ideas and diversity that makes it the perfect environment for an experimental winemaker.
He was always going to end up back in Margaret River.
“Margaret River is real and it’s raw; it’s beautiful,” he says. “You’ve got air that’s pure and you just feel alive. And that’s why it's a beautiful place to make wine.”
In 2013 it was time to forge his own path and he founded L.A.S. Vino (the L.A.S. being luck, art science). Nic takes a minimal-intervention approach to making small batches of wine that are ‘a little bit different’, either in the way they’re made or the grapes that are used.
“I’ve never seen the point in making the same wines that everyone else is,” he says. “I’m trying to find methods that no one’s doing, but do them in a way that makes the wine more delicious.
“My aim is to get to where people aren’t just tasting it and enjoying the taste, but they feel something emotionally. Because imagine that, creating something that touches someone in such a way that it changes their emotion. That’s a really special thing.”
“I've never seen the point in making the same wines that everyone else is.” – Nic Peterkin
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