Solaris

Solaris is a modern disease resistant crossing, bred at the Freiburg institute in Germany in 1975 and released in the 1990s. It belongs to the group known as PIWI varieties, bred to carry resistance to downy and powdery mildew so that a vineyard needs far fewer sprays than a vinifera vineyard does.

Its second gift matters even more in practice: it ripens extremely early, weeks ahead of almost anything else. That combination of early ripening and disease resistance is what has made it the grape of cool climate viticulture at the northern limit. Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium and parts of England grow it, and in several of those countries it is the most planted variety there is.

The wine is soft and generous rather than sharp, which surprises people who expect a cold climate white to be lean. It reaches high sugar easily and can lose acidity fast if picked late, so the danger is a heavy, low acid wine at fourteen degrees from a Danish vineyard. Picked early it gives pineapple, elderflower and ripe pear with a full texture.