The winery is part of the Drouvas Estate, which covers an area of approximately 70 acres and is located in Agios Georgios, one of the hills surrounding Pyrgos of Ilia.
Since the mid-19th century, Vasilios Drouvas, based in Koumani in the mountainous region of Ilia, on the Foloi plateau, had developed a significant business activity that had expanded to almost the entire region of Ilia with estates, real estate, cultivation and trade of raisins. His business activities were continued by his children with the cultivation and trade of raisins based in Pyrgos, who during the first decades of the 1900s were among the largest raisin merchants in the region. The youngest of the Vasilios Drouvas brothers was grandfather Spyros, a distinguished member of Pyrgos society, to whom ownership of the Estate was transferred.
He marries Sofia and they have a daughter, Golfo, and a son, Sakis. Great-grandfather Spyros passes away young in 1923 and Sofia takes over the estate and the raising of the children.
Spyridon Drouvas 1879-1923
Raisin cultivation collapsed in 1935 ( the second raisin crisis). The raisin vines were uprooted and the estate switched to annual crops, always in combination with olive cultivation, but with poor results.
Thus, after the civil war, Sakis is appointed to the Ministry of Finance and takes over the Monopoly of Pyrgos, marries Dina, an employee of the NBG of Pyrgos, having his permanent residence in Pyrgos. Since 1960, when the division of the “patriarchal” property takes place, he also takes over the estate which is now a supplementary income target for the family and the house on the estate acquires a holiday dimension.
Dionysios (Sakis) Drouvas 1919-2000
In the 60s and 70s, the estate took the form of “Agrepavli” with the two-story house and the veranda overlooking the sea of Katakolo, its premises, the cistern-swimming pool, the gardens and its domestic animals. During these holidays and the summer, Sakis and Dina’s friends had fun with walks on the estate, hunting in the hills, diving and lounging in the cistern, food and cards on the veranda, always to the sounds of 45 rpm records played by a portable record player.
Farmhouse
Meanwhile, with the land consolidation of 1970 and the irrigation of the estate, vineyards, apricot and orange trees were planted again and within 10 years, from a secondary income goal it became a primary one.
In 1980, new wine production began and Sakis returned to the estate and focused on it, without neglecting the tree cultivation. His son Spyros, at this time, is a private employee but at the same time helps Sakis, according to family tradition, on the estate, while his daughter Sofia follows in her mother’s footsteps at the National Winery of Pyrgos.
Since 2000, Spyros has been settling in the estate and the era of its modernization begins, especially the adaptation of winemaking to new technological conditions.
In 2006, when the little granddaughter Ioulia enrolled in the School of Oenology at the Technical University of Athens, the family moved permanently from Pyrgos to the estate, mom Gioula took over the food and wine pairing and the tables of the group were set up again.
The final decision is one-way: gradual institutional and structural changes that will lead to the proper exploitation of the estate’s resources and the promotion of the wine wealth of its indigenous grape varieties, always open to friends and the public.