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Younger generations: Familia Deicas and Vinarija Kozlović
In wine, it’s never a given that the younger generation will take the reins from their parents. Or that it will run smoothly if they do. Ines Salpico and Sylvia Wu introduce the winemakers stepping up at their family holdings in Uruguay and Croatia.
Santiago Deicas had his first paid gig – in wine and in life – at 12 years old, as a lab assistant at his family’s winery. This planted the seed of systematic curiosity that shapes his work at the helm of Bodega Familia Deicas today.
Twenty-five years on, he’s the third generation of the Deicas family leading the eponymous Uruguayan winery, overseeing production from at least 300ha of vineyards in all across a dozen regions of the country.
Santiago has the humble confidence of someone who was born into a lineage of assertive entrepreneurship and daring firsts. Bodega Familia Deicas was founded in 2000 as an offshoot of the family’s larger-scale, export-focused business Establicimiento Juanicó – known for its Don Pascual range.
The objective was to focus resources on the fine wines that Santiago’s father, Fernando Deicas, had started developing with the creation of Preludio, a Bordeaux-inspired blend that pioneered fine wine production in Uruguay.
The winery has since had a key role in placing – and to an extent defining – the identity of Uruguayan wine as a whole. The evolution of Familia Deicas from Bordeaux derivative to champion of ‘Western Atlanticism’ mirrors the country’s increasing understanding of its viticultural identity – and Santiago Deicas’ coming of age and emergence as one of South America’s most exciting young winemakers.
Atlantic Soul
Santiago’s path was not forced upon him. However, as he recounts his trajectory – from those first days in the lab to being regarded as one of South America’s most talented winemakers – there’s a sense of inevitability, hemmed by studiousness and worldliness.
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‘The event that made me sure I wanted to do this was a trip to Bordeaux with my father, when I was 14,’ he recalls. ‘We were exhibiting at the Vinexpo trade show and the whole experience marked me profoundly.
‘There was this amazing camaraderie among producers; not just those of us travelling together from Uruguay but all those we met [at the show]. Having a producer badge meant that we were part of this community. And there was this sense of responsibility, as ambassadors for our country and culture. It’s not just wine that we represent.’
With that certainty cemented, he started working in the cellar, gained harvest experience and eventually graduated in food technology with a specialism in oenology. He went on also to earn an MBA.
Further to his academic accomplishments, Santiago has had two great schools: travelling and tasting extensively; and a remarkable pool of star consultants engaged by Deicas over the decades (Californian legend Paul Hobbs has been their leading advisor since 2012).
Working alongside his father from 2011 and 2019 allowed for an organic, gradual transition that culminated in Santiago’s appointment as winemaking director in 2020. In the process, he had the time and space to consider the focus of his work.
‘I did worry, for a while, about Deicas’ identity [as a winery]. How did the more vanguard wines I’ve been developing (like the Extreme Vineyards limited release bottlings from individual terroirs) sit next to a wine like Preludio? Eventually I realised that the common thread is that Atlantic identity. It defines our wines and our winemaking decisions.’
Rather than a point of arrival, this realisation has provided a confident launchpad for the restless curiosity, framed by technical pragmatism, that will surely make Santiago Deicas one of South America’s most prominent wine names in decades to come.
Gianna Kozlović
Vinarija Kozlović, Croatia
By Sylvia Wu
(Image credit: Credit Unknown)
‘I was never forced to be interested in winemaking, which, maybe, was my parents’ clever strategy to see if I would be,’ says Gianna Kozlović, fifth generation of the famed family winery in the north of the picturesque Istrian peninsula, in Croatia.
The Kozlović family first put down its roots in wine in 1904 in the Vale valley near Momjan village, just 1km from the border with Slovenia. Over nearly a century of cautious expansion, the fourth generation – Gianfranco and Antonella (Gianna’s parents) – took over in 1998 and soon became leading figures in the modern renaissance of Istrian wine, particularly for their interpretation of the indigenous white grape Malvazija Istriana.
The estate’s three-storey contemporary winery and its panoramic tasting terrace, completed in 2012 near the family’s original home, also make it a must-visit for wine lovers.
Gianna had been helping her parents around the winery since she was old enough to walk, but, as she puts it, her real interest in wine ‘didn’t really start’ until early adulthood.
She has certainly witnessed Kozlović’s rise to international prominence throughout her life, though. In 2001, the Kozlović family started working on Santa Lucia (eventually acquiring it in 2008) – a southwest-facing 20ha vineyard near Buje, where the oldest Malvazija plantings date back to 1961.
The site – rich in flysch, limestone and clay – was later hailed as one of Croatia’s prime terroirs for wine-growing.
The winery’s 2017 Santa Lucia Malvazija won Platinum at the Decanter World Wine Awards 2022, and the 2018 vintage took Gold at DWWA 2025 – and this year, it was Gianna who went on stage to receive the award at the annual Decanter Winners’ Showcase held in Istria.
Honest appraisal
Gianna studied winemaking at the University of Udine in Italy, and was fascinated by the chemistry behind wine. Having officially been ‘bitten by the wine bug’, she went on to complete her master’s degree at Hochschule Geisenheim University in Germany, and now works full-time alongside her parents and her younger sister Lara.
‘My family members will have no hesitation in telling me what I did wrong, nor do they withhold criticism, which can spark a lot of arguments,’ says the 26-year-old oenologist, her fluent English carrying an easy confidence and warmth.
‘However, it also means that we can be really honest in a way you just can’t be in a purely professional relationship. I think this helps to achieve extraordinary results in the long run.’
Over the past two years, Gianna has taken charge of the family estate’s now 30ha vineyard and has become increasingly involved in the cellar, working closely with the winemaking team under Gianfranco’s guidance.
She quickly learned that ‘good intuition is sometimes more important than theory’ when it comes to winemaking, honing her own skill to ‘read’ a wine.
Besides upholding the family estate’s reputation for unwavering quality in its Malvazija, she also has her sights set on shaping her own legacy within Kozlović’s future.
‘I’ve become interested in cracking the code for producing a great red wine,’ she says. ‘I’m very passionate about researching great vineyard locations for Teran [the Istrian indigenous red grape] and I think it will be my personal challenge to try to produce the best Teran you’ve ever tried.’
Familia Deicas, Atlántico Sur Albariño, Uruguay, 2025
My wines
A beautiful take on Albariño, elegant, approachable and expressive both of the variety's potential and of its potential for distinctiveness in its newfound Uruguayan home....
A fresh summer white (also the estate’s best-selling bottle) that gives a snapshot of the varietal charm of Malvasia Istriana grown on what the locals...
