Drius

The field decision and the cellar decision

The vineyard call comes before the cellar call for Mauro Drius, winemaker at Drius in Cormons. As agronomist here, and agricultural entrepreneur at Azienda Agricola Drius Mauro since 1980, Mauro Drius works from the row outward, keeping cultivation, stewardship and cellar direction in the same set of hands. Drius is a family estate rather than a separated structure of grower, buyer and maker. Mauro, his wife Nadia, and their children Denis, Erika and Valentina are named by the house as part of the working family unit, with environmental respect and naturalness set at the center of the method.

That continuity matters in Cormons, where the estate sits at the foot of Monte Quarin and draws on vineyards running between Collio and the Alto Isonzo plain. The lineage is not presented as a certificate or a borrowed pedigree. Mauro speaks of roots, family history and teachings passed from generation to generation, and the work follows that register: practical, seasonal, close to the land. His post at Drius joins agronomy to winemaking, so the same discipline that reads the slope, soil and weather also shapes the fruit brought into the cellar. The estate opened its current chapter in 2021, but the working rhythm is older than the room.

Collio hills, Isonzo gravels

The program at Drius is built across DOC Collio and DOC Isonzo, two neighboring zones with different pressure on the vine. Collio brings hills, ponca, alluvial gravel, clay and limestone, with sun exposure and cooling air from the mountains. Isonzo brings the flatter alluvial plain, with the river separating Rive Alte from Rive di Giare. The house works within both appellations, using the contrast rather than smoothing it away.

The grape list tells the same story. Friulano, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio, Ribolla Gialla and Sauvignon carry the white side of the cellar, while Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Refosco give the reds their frame. The broader portfolio includes still whites, still reds, sparkling wines and sweet wines. Published categories name 57 white offerings, 20 red offerings, 7 sparkling wines and 3 sweet wines, with blends on both sides of the range. Those figures are less a boast than a map of attention: indigenous Friulian varieties, international grapes long settled in the region, and a family method that holds both Collio DOC and Isonzo DOC in view.

A tasting room made from the same principle

The tasting room is described by the house as large, luminous and built with eco-sustainable materials. It is not separate from the work; it reads as the public edge of the same conviction that governs the vineyards. Light does some of the labor. The room keeps the mood conversational, with the winery’s environmental language made physical through material choices rather than decoration.

Visitors encounter Drius as a small family-run estate, not a polished performance of rurality. The cellar and tasting room sit close to the land that gives the wines their argument, and the setting keeps Collio’s hills and Isonzo’s plain in the same mental frame. This is the useful texture of the place: a counter, a glass, the family name on the bottle, and the agricultural decisions still close enough to feel bench-side.

The range stays with the family hand

Drius’s range remains tied to Mauro Drius’s dual role. He does not split the farmer’s judgment from the winemaker’s responsibility. The next glass here returns to that same junction, whether it carries Friulano, Ribolla Gialla, Merlot or Refosco.