How the US Destroyed Europe’s Vineyards

                           Phylloxera, introduced by America, annihilated Europe's wine industry

Many of you reading this Blog have been on Wine-Knows wine and food tours.  You have heard the stories at chateaux in Bordeaux, domaines in Burgundy, bodegas in Spain, cantinas or tenutas in Italy, and houses in Port regarding how nearly every square meter of vineyards in Europe was destroyed by the deadly bug Phylloxera.   Rarely was it mentioned, however, that Phylloxera was introduced into Europe by American grape vines > 150 years ago.

The year was 1863.  The Civil war was underway and the Union forces had overtaken the Confederate city of Vicksburg.   Across the Atlantic another hellish event was brewing as American grape vines were being unloaded from ships.   

In the mid-1800’s, the railroad from Paris to Bordeaux was completed.  In anticipation of the opportunities that rail service would bring to Bordeaux, many Paris financiers rushed to Bordeaux to purchase land between 1840 and 1850.  Among them were two different segments of the Rothschild family (Lafite and Mouton).   Close behind them were a cadre of other immensely wealthy bankers who smelled opportunity in the wine business.  In 1860 Bordeaux held a World’s Fair to commemorate the opening of the railway.   Wines were a critical piece of the marketing for this event (in fact, the sacred Bordeaux wine classification which still stands today, was birthed special for this momentous occasion).

                      By the time the vine shows signs of disease the root system is beyond repair

Now, back to 1863 and those American vines.  A winery in the Rhone Valley had decided to conduct an experiment with vines they imported from California.  What the French winery didn’t know was that the Cali vines contained a louse called Phylloxera.  As the American grape vines were resistant to Phylloxera, the Americans never dreamed there would be an issue in sending their vines to France for research.  Unfortunately, France’s vines had no resistance to this destructive pest, and soon Phylloxera spread throughout all the wine regions of France, then on to Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Hungary, Greece, Croatia etc.  Essentially, all of Europe’s vineyards were wiped out.   But, America did come back to save the day.

American root stock was used to graft what was left of the European vines.  As the Phylloxera bug attacks roots thereby destroying the plant, the only solution was to stop the destruction of the root.  Phylloxera resistant root stock from the US was imported and all wineries urgently complied with the grafting.  The few remaining European vines were now safe on grafted American root stock.