How phylloxera devastated European vineyards

In the second half of the 19th century, phylloxera destroyed almost all the vineyards in Europe. It was a disaster. No vine was left untouched. Winegrowers and wineries went bankrupt en masse, leaving their customers thirsty. Desperately, a way was sought to tame this monster. It took more than twenty years before a solution was found.

The grape louse, or Phylloxera Vastatrix, is only 1 millimetre in size. It is not its size that makes it so dangerous, but its ability to produce enormous quantities of offspring in a very short time, up to millions in a season, and that from a single 'mother louse'.

The problem with the grape louse started in the second half of the 19th century. From 1863 onwards, signals came from the Rhône that things were not going so well with the vineyards. Vines were dying, piece by piece, vineyard by vineyard. The problem spread like an oil slick across the European vineyards. Only after years of research did it become clear that it was a small grape louse that was causing the problems. Grape louse is perhaps not such a good name. Because it does not sit on the grape, but mainly on the rootstock. It bites small wounds in the stick, causing the rootstock to lose sap and no longer be able to absorb water and minerals. Fungi and other infectious diseases enter through the wounds and the plant dies.

Smoking out, cow urine and tobacco powder

The phylloxera was brought to England on American vines. Within a few years, it had already destroyed large parts of the European vineyards. But what could be done against this monster? How to defeat it? Desperate winegrowers tried everything. Some tried to smoke it out. Others uprooted their vines and planted new ones, which then also died. Others even came up with the idea of ​​sprinkling cow urine over the plants, or scattering tobacco powder. There are even stories of winegrowers who scattered bones dissolved in sulphuric acid over their vineyards. But nothing helped...

Grafting onto American sticks

After more than twenty years and 2.5 million hectares of destroyed vineyards, the solution finally arrived. American vines turned out to be resistant to the louse. All over Europe, winegrowers started grafting their European grape varieties onto American rootstocks. A lot of manual work, mind you. In Sicily alone, 26 million new vines were planted. It became a race against time. Several regions, such as the French Gaillac and Cahors, fell behind and lost the competition with regions that had their vineyards back in order more quickly. Only a few European regions, such as the Portuguese Colares (situated on sand), the Greek island of Santorini (remote) and the Spanish island of Tenerife (volcanic vineyards) escaped the fateful dance of the phylloxera.

Phylloxera is still not without danger. It can mutate quite quickly and it is not entirely unthinkable that it will strike again one day. All the more reason not to leave your glass standing!