Nikolas Juretic is Slow Wine's Young Winemaker of the Year 2027.

Nikolas Juretic , winemaker at the eponymous winery in Cormons, in the Collio area of Gorizia, is the winner of the 2027 Slow Wine Young Winemaker Award . He received the recognition on October 17 in Milan, during the presentation of the seventeenth edition of the Slow Food Editore guide, which annually dedicates this special award to a representative of the new generation of Italian wine.

The guide recognizes him "for his ability to observe before acting and listen before deciding. For a viticulture based on knowledge, sensitivity, and an almost individual attention to the vine, resulting in wines that are never predictable and deeply rooted in their places. And for having combined personal work with a collective vision, contributing with Senza Meja to bringing together a new generation of Friulian and Slovenian winemakers."

Slow Wine 2027 also awards the company the Bottiglia , the symbol reserved for wineries that express high and consistent quality in all the wines tasted, and highlights its Mont 2024 as Top Wine and Vino Slow , the awards with which the guide rewards wines that are excellent when tasted and capable of expressing territory, history and environment in the glass.

Born in 1990, Nikolas has built his career entirely on the field. After completing art high school, at nineteen he began traveling and working in wineries in Italy and abroad . His time in Australia, in 2012 and 2013, at Quealy Winemakers on the Mornington Peninsula, proved decisive: it was on the other side of the world that, working with a macerated Friulano—the house grape—he developed the desire to one day make his own wine. Upon returning to Italy, he joined the Simonit&Sirch team: for over ten years he provided consultancy and training on branched pruning in North and South America and Europe. A profession that teaches you to observe the plant and imagine its growth with just a few cuts, and which returns today in the way Nikolas works his vineyards.

In 2018, he began making wine in Cormons using grapes from the family vineyards, which his father had always cultivated and sold. Since 2020, he has been supported by his partner, Lena-Maria Julier , known as " Lelle ," a winemaker who grew up in a family of winemakers in Germany, with whom he shares every production decision. Since 2025, Nikolas has dedicated himself full-time to the winery: today, the vineyards cover approximately 3 hectares , producing 15,000 bottles, 70% of which is exported.

The vineyards, all over fifty years old , are located in the crus of Montona, Pradis, and Bosc di Sot, and in San Floriano del Collio, on ponca, the flysch of marl and calcareous sandstone typical of the area. The low-density plantings (between 2,500 and 3,500 vines per hectare) border the forest, have been certified organic for twenty-five years, and are managed according to the principles of permaculture . In the mixed-planted parcels, the varieties—Friulano, Malvasia Istriana, Ribolla Gialla, Pinot Grigio, and Picolit among the whites, and Schioppettino, Merlot, and Carmenere among the reds—are harvested and vinified together: each vineyard produces its own wine, with all its varieties . In the cellar, maceration on the skins, spontaneous fermentation, long aging on the lees in wood and cement, and bottling without filtration.

The range currently includes four labels , three whites and one red. The flagship wine is Mont , a Friulano with small amounts of Picolit and Malvasia Istriana from a 1968 vineyard on Monte Quarin, which has always been in the family: a white with pronounced acidity and a saline finish. The labels are painted by Nikolas himself.

Alongside the work in the vineyard, there's also the collective effort. Nikolas is president of Senza Meja , the cross-border association founded in the spring of 2025 that brings together 25 young winemakers from the Collio, Brda, Carso, and Colli Orientali regions, united by organic or biodynamic agriculture and spontaneous fermentations. The association promotes the region with events and tastings, including a pop-up wine shop in Gorizia, and organizes training and opportunities for discussion among its members, transcending a border that for these winemakers is merely a line on the map.