🍷 Great French Wine Blight

The Great French Wine Blight, or phylloxera crisis, was an epidemic that destroyed most of Europe's vineyards between the 1860s and 1900s. The culprit was phylloxera, a tiny aphid that feeds on vine roots. It reached Europe from North America, probably with American plants.

The disease was first noticed in France in the 1860s. Vines wilted and died, and nothing helped. Millions of hectares were lost. Many winemakers were ruined, and whole regions lost their income. Vines were treated with poisons and flooding, without great success.

The solution was to graft European vines onto the roots of American species, which resist phylloxera. The rootstock is the root part, and the grafted top part bears the grapes. This is still done today. Only in a few places with sandy soil do vines grow on their own roots. The crisis changed European winemaking and many grape varieties, and led to the appearance of hybrids.