Aphid, parasite of the vine, phylloxera has decimated the entire French vineyard in a few years. A short story of what the Americans have brought us worst after the influencers.

On the importance of wine

In the second half of the 19th century, the wine industry represented nearly a third of national jobs, the economic stakes were colossal. The vine was pampered like an ingot, the wine trade grew in particular thanks to the industrial revolution and nothing seemed to be able to stop this wave of blue, white and red economic intoxication. You will then easily understand that, around 1850, when powdery mildew struck part of the vines, fear took hold of many vineyards. This cryptogamic disease, that is to say that it is due to a fungus, was however quickly brought under control thanks to Henri Mares who developed during the year, a sulfur treatment of the vines preventing this fungus from developing. A short-lived respite, phylloxera was already crossing the Atlantic.

Vitis Vinifera & Vitis Labrusca

Two major types of vine varieties are opposed at this time: Vitis Vinifera, the vines that we have in Europe and which produce wines with a high taste quality. And Vitis Labrusca which are the vines that we find in particular in the United States and which have the particularity of producing wines with a foxy taste, that is to say raspberry. The interest of Vitis Labrusca, which does not produce the most flavorful wines, is that it resists in particular endemic American diseases such as Mildew and Phylloxera. Vitis Vinifera does not produce grapes in the USA, Vitis Labrusca is productive!

Arrival of Phylloxera in Europe

1860, a winemaker from Gard unexpectedly brought a few American vines contaminated by phylloxera to experiment with these exotic vines in France and thus introduced the small aphid that kills vines into Europe. This was the beginning of a disaster that would gradually see a large part of the French and European vineyards decimated.

Photo of the vine affected by Phylloxera from the blog https://vinsdumonde.blog/

Spread of Phylloxera

By injecting saliva on the leaf or root of the vine, phylloxera creates a small growth that takes the form of a gall in which the plant will provide nutrients. Phylloxera forms a small cocoon in which it can lay eggs and develop in complete peace.

The wind completes the work by allowing the aphid to move from one region to another until it colonizes a large part of the European vineyard.

Eradication of the vine killer

In 1870, the fight against phylloxera went far beyond the wine-growing sphere: politicians and scientists sought in vain for ways to eradicate the aphid that killed vines. Many attempts were made, starting with pesticides. They also tried to flood the vineyards, after it was found that the aphid no longer spread in water. The results were conclusive on the plains but impossible to implement on hillsides. Finally, it was found that phylloxera could not create galleries on sandy soils, a rare part of the vineyard to be protected.

It was not until 1869 that Gaston Bazille, a politician, agronomist and winemaker from Montpellier, suggested protecting the vine by using American rootstocks. The method consisted of planting Vitis Labrusca, the American vine and resistant to phylloxera, on which to graft the Vitis Vinifera scion, our European vine. The rootstock plays its role of transit allowing the vine to receive water, minerals and nutrients but the vine continues to produce European grapes.

This method is now applied in a huge part of the European vineyard and it is opposed to the so-called “franches de pied” vines, that is to say not grafted, as is the case of the “Franc de Pied” vintage from the famous Saumur winemaker Thierry Germain.