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  Quaffers® Feature - July 2002
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| Phylloxera: Scourge of the Wine Industry |
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 The destruction of French vineyards during the nineteenth century and the resulting re-planting programme had a disastrous economic impact on the country. Most estimates put the expense at more than twice the cost of the war with Prussia, waged at the same time - equating to roughly 12,000 million French Francs. Who would have thought that a louse, barely visible to the naked eye, could have been responsible for almost wiping out an entire industry not just in France but across Europe?
Originating from North America, this louse is known as Phylloxera Vastatrix (PV). Phylloxera is the species name and ' Vastatrix', meaning destroyer, was appended during the devastation of the French vineyards. PV has not been eradicated. The louse still exists today and is a dangerous pest to the vineyard but, with careful controls and with the knowledge acquired over the centuries, its damage can be limited.
 PV lives on the roots. It sucks the sap, depriving the vine of nutrients until eventually the vine dies. Once one vine in a vineyard begins to display the symptoms (yellowing and dead leaves, weak spurs, poorly coloured and flavoured grapes) it is likely that the louse will have already spread to the rest of the plants. Quite quickly the entire vineyard is wiped out. The louse spreads rapidly, transported on root samples, on the soles of wellies as vineyard workers make their way through the crop and in rainwater trickling through the fields. The dead vines, when dug up, have black and rotten roots.
We now know all of this. We also know that American rootstocks are, on the whole, resistant to PV and that is why the vast majority of vines in Europe and the rest of the world are grafted on to US rootstocks. This is the best preventative measure against PV. In nineteenth century France, however, none of this was known. French vineyards owners witnessed the destruction of their crops from an attack of Powdery Mildew during the 1840's. Twenty years' later a new aggressor was threatening to wipe them out once again. This time the cause was unknown. The first reported cases occurred in 1863. Puzzled vineyard owners found no reason for the decline and eventual death of their vines. PV does not hang around once a vine is dead. It moves on to a healthy plant to feed on fresh sap. The dead vines, therefore, did not reveal any sign of PV on their roots. Over the subsequent five years, more and more vineyards across France were destroyed. A commission was set up in 1868 and given a mandate to discover the cause of the problem and to find a solution.
 In areas affected by PV, the commission began a programme of digging up healthy, dying and dead vines to see if they could spot a link that would take them closer to discovering the cause of the epidemic. They noticed that the healthy and dying vines all had the yellow louse on their roots. Over the next two years much research was carried out on PV and it was determined that it was the same louse as that found in the US. It was given its name - Phylloxera Vastatrix. At that time, however, there was little conviction that PV was responsible for the vines' death. It was surmised that PV was there because the vine was dying. It was a parasite.
In 1870 France went to war with Prussia and despite the obvious crisis in the wine industry, the Government's attention was focused on its foreign policy. Not until the emergency affected the purse strings, did the authorities take action. The depleting yields from the vineyards meant that taxes declined. By 1873 the Government was so worried that they appointed a second commission and offered a huge reward to anyone who could discover the cause and find a solution. The prize was 300,000 French Francs.
An extensive test centre was set up at Montpellier University under Professor Planchon. By 1876 no remedy had succeeded but the scientists did find out much more about PV. They understood that vines planted in sandy soil were able to thrive. PV couldn't survive in sand. Flooding the soil rid the vineyards of the pest, but it was not a permanent solution, as the vineyards were vulnerable the following year. Various chemicals also had the effect of killing PV but, again, only temporarily. The centre received nearly 700 suggestions for cures. Some of the most bizarre included burying a live toad near to the vine to draw poison away from it, and watering ailing vines with white wine!
 It was around 1877 that a correlation was noticed between the extensive importation of rooted US vines to Europe and the spread of the disease. It was fashionable at the time for rare plants and insects to be imported from around the world to Europe by collectors and it is likely that PV came to Europe either on the roots of hothouse plants or on the vines themselves. Tests showed that the vines surviving attacks from PV were always American. Gradually it was understood that the US roots were resistant to the louse. If European vines were grafted on to these rootstocks, they were safe from PV. It took a lot to convince the wider world that this solution would work, but Professor Planchon was helped by his colleague in the US, Charles Riley. The theory of grafting the vines on to US rootstocks had long been put forward by a chap called Laliman from Bordeaux. He had been experimenting for years and Professor Planchon recommended that Laliman be awarded the 300,000 French Francs. The prize was never awarded. The Government maintained that grafting prevented the attacks from PV, rather than curing it!
From that point on, European vines were grafted on to US rootstocks. This came with its difficulties since some US rootstocks performed poorly in alkaline soils and some proved to be more resistant to PV than others. Emotionally, the Europeans had to be convinced that the grafting programme would not diminish the quality of wine. We shall never know, as we cannot compare wines made during the nineteenth century on European rootstocks with those made today.
Very few vine-growing regions of the world are safe from PV today. One such area, however, is Chile, which has never suffered from any attack from PV in its history. Its vines are ungrafted. It is difficult to really know why Chile has been unaffected. It could be because of its isolation from other countries, bordered as it is by the sea on the west and mountains to the east and with desert and the Antarctic to the north and south. It could also be because its soil is predominantly sandy, and because in the past the country did not import vines from the US. Chile is an exception. The rest of the world's wine producing countries must be on its guard.
Phylloxera Vastatrix changed the vine growing industry in Europe for good. 40% of France's vines were destroyed and up to 80% were eventually re-planted with grafted vines. The other European countries suffered a similar fate and many families lost their livelihoods. For such a small insect it was, and still can be, a dangerous foe.
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