For most wine drinkers, names such as Chardonnay, Riesling and Pinot Noir feel reassuringly familiar. Solaris, Divico or Souvignier Gris probably less so.

Yet these lesser-known varieties are appearing in more European vineyards. Not because growers suddenly want to replace the classics, but because they offer something increasingly valuable: a natural resistance to some of the diseases that make growing grapes so demanding.

They are often grouped under the name PIWI, short for the German pilzwiderstandsfähige Rebsorten. The name may be awkward; the idea behind it is quite simple. If a vine is less vulnerable to mildew and other diseases, a grower may be able to spray far less often.

And in a vineyard, that can make quite a difference.

Fewer treatments, less work in the vineyard

Anyone who imagines a vineyard as a peaceful place where grapes simply ripen in the sun is missing a large part of the picture.

Vines need looking after. Traditional European wine grapes can be particularly vulnerable to powdery and downy mildew, especially when the weather turns warm and damp. In difficult years, protecting a vineyard can mean repeated treatments throughout the growing season.

Resistant varieties change that equation.

A recent scientific review found that modern disease-resistant varieties can reduce fungicide use by as much as 80% compared with traditional cultivars. The precise saving varies with the grape, the vineyard and the year, but the attraction is obvious: fewer treatments can mean less fuel, fewer tractor passes, lower costs and less intervention in the vineyard.

That does not mean these vines are invincible. They can still get disease, and growers still have to pay attention. Resistance is better thought of as a head start than a suit of armour.

Where do these grapes come from?

PIWI grapes are not simply wild vines that someone happened to discover.

They are the result of breeding programmes that can take many years. Breeders cross vines with useful natural resistance with grapes chosen for qualities such as flavour, ripening and wine potential. From the many seedlings that result, only the most promising are kept and tested further.

Modern examples include Solaris, Souvignier Gris, Sauvignac, Divico, Vidoc and Artaban.

The real challenge is obvious enough: creating a vine that is easier to grow is useful, but it still has to make wine that people actually want to drink.

And that brings us to perhaps the most interesting part of the story.

But what do the wines taste like?

Earlier generations of hybrid grapes did not always enjoy the best reputation. Some produced wines with flavours that felt unfamiliar to drinkers brought up on classic European varieties, and that image has proved surprisingly difficult to shake off.

Modern breeding has moved on.

In September 2026, researchers published a large study of 43 white and 33 red wines from resistant and traditional grape varieties grown in southern France. They found a remarkably wide range of styles. More importantly, there was no clear overall sensory divide between wines made from resistant grapes and those made from traditional Vitis vinifera varieties. Vintage, ripeness, climate and winemaking continued to play major roles in how the wines tasted.

That does not mean every PIWI wine is wonderful. Of course it isn’t; the same could be said of Chardonnay.

But it does weaken the idea that resistant grapes inevitably produce wines that taste somehow strange or obviously different.

Divico is a good example

One grape worth watching is Divico.

Created in Switzerland, this red variety has strong resistance to several important vineyard diseases. What makes it particularly interesting, though, is that researchers are no longer looking at Divico simply as a practical solution for the vineyard.

They are looking at the wine.

A Swiss study published in September 2026 followed Divico through several vintages and at two different vineyard sites. The grapes developed particularly high levels of anthocyanins, the compounds largely responsible for colour in red wine, while showing encouragingly stable ripening characteristics.

In other words, Divico has something to offer beyond the fact that it needs less protection from disease. It has genuine potential as a wine grape in its own right.

That is an important shift. A new grape is far more likely to find a lasting place in vineyards if growers want to plant it for the wine it produces, rather than simply for the problems it avoids.

So why aren’t they everywhere?

For all the interest surrounding them, resistant varieties are still tiny in the context of European wine. They account for less than one per cent of vineyard area in the European Union.

There are plenty of reasons for that.

A vineyard is a long-term investment. Replanting is expensive, and a grower planting a new variety today may be living with that decision for decades. Wine regulations can limit which grapes are allowed in particular regions, while an unfamiliar name on the label brings another question: will anyone buy it?

Research among wine professionals in southern France found exactly those kinds of concerns, including the cost of planting new vines and restrictions connected with protected appellations.

And then there is tradition.

Chardonnay does not need an introduction. Neither does Pinot Noir. Put Souvignier Gris on a wine list and there is a fair chance someone will have to explain what it is.

That takes time to change.

Not an answer to everything

It is also easy to ask too much of these new grapes.

Disease resistance does not automatically mean that a variety will cope brilliantly with drought, extreme heat or every other challenge associated with a changing climate. Those are different characteristics.

The next generation of breeding programmes is therefore looking beyond disease alone, searching for vines that can combine several useful traits and still produce distinctive, enjoyable wine.

Perhaps that is the most interesting way to look at PIWIs. Not as replacements for the grapes we already know, but as an expansion of what a vineyard can be.

A vineyard with more choices

Chardonnay is not about to disappear. Nor are Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon or Pinot Noir.

And there is no reason they should.

But the vineyard of the future may simply contain more choices than the vineyard of the past: famous international varieties, old local grapes that have been rediscovered, and newly bred varieties that would barely have been recognised a generation ago.

Some will succeed. Others probably won’t.

That has always been part of wine’s story. Grapes travel, tastes change, growers adapt and varieties come and go.

Perhaps Solaris, Divico or Souvignier Gris will never become household names.

But it would be unwise to assume that the grape varieties we know today are the only ones that belong in tomorrow’s vineyards.