The Nicolau Family has been dairy farming in Stanislaus County since the early 1900s when Jose Nicolau left the small island of Flores in the Azores to seek a better life. With him he brought a passion for family, farming, and food, as did all Portuguese immigrants. Eventually he would establish his dairy farm in the Westport District just outside the town of Modesto, California, in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley. Over a century later, Walter Nicolau III is still committed to the same values which his great grandfather brought to this great nation, with Nicolau Farms continuing to focus on our family, tending to our land and livestock, and handcrafting high quality artisan cheese for families, friends, and followers presently and for generations to come.