In the medal race, as always, the old wine countries – France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal – were the frontrunners. A few medals also went to Germany, Australia, Canada, Bulgaria and Hungary and, surprisingly, quite a few were won by Moldavian wineries growing old classic grape varieties. None of the other Solaris stood out, even though it is cultivated in Germany and Austria. For me, this means that our little Nordic Solaris (grown by Heino Säinas at the foot of Tarvastu Castle) competed with the classic known varieties of the old wine countries, without the usual indulgent epithets of “Nordic, cold climate, extreme conditions, eccentric winemaker” etc. Like a normal wine among other, mostly old world wines. And it was successful. At the Paris Wine Cup, wines are judged not only on their taste but also on their marketability and customer-friendliness. “Your wine may be worth 95 points for taste, but if it’s in an ugly bottle, has an ugly label and the price doesn’t seem very fair, you won’t get high points.” This means that in the case of Solaris, the judges considered all the above nuances worthy of a silver medal.