Solaris - Vigneti delle Dolomiti IGT 2020 Thomas Niedermayr

Thomas Niedermayr’s Solaris is the wine that kicks off every harvest at Hof Gandberg — the first to be picked, between August and late summer, when the earliest vines on the calcareous-dolomitic terraces of Appiano are already ready. Solaris is a PIWI variety — an acronym for the German pilzwiderstandsfähig, meaning fungus-resistant — a cross selected to thrive without anti-fungal treatments. At 500-700 meters on white dolomite and clay soils, it expresses a rocky minerality and freshness that few other mountain varieties can match. It was Rudolf Niedermayr, Thomas’s father, who first planted Solaris in Italy — a pioneering gamble when organic farming was still a minority position and resistant varieties were viewed with suspicion. Brief maceration in the press, soft pressing, spontaneous alcoholic and malolactic fermentation, then 15 months in neutral oak, acacia, and chestnut barrels — first on gross lees, then on fine lees — and finally a period in steel before bottling in April 2022. Total sulfites at 24 mg/l, unfiltered, unfined. The resulting Solaris is clear, precise, and mineral: stone fruit and flint on the nose, energetic and direct on the palate.