When Europeans first arrived on the shores of North America they were surprised to find that the copious forest were well entangled with native grape vines. It wasn't long before dreams of new styles of wine failed to emerge as viable competitors to the sea of wines from the old countries. The native grapes had an odd flavor, and noticing that these grapes were much beloved by the local fox population, the flavor was designated as "foxy." Anyone who has ever had grape jelly or grape juice in the US is quite familiar with the flavor.

As North America was increasingly settled, and the forests were sacrificed to farm land, most of the native grapes were all but forgotten. In the mid 19th century, a time of zealous scientific classification, a few examples of these wild grape vines were brought to England. Little known at the time, a hitchhiker who would cause one of the greatest economic disasters of all time, was hiding among those vines.

The devastation was immense

Phylloxera is a bug, an aphid like bug. In the Eastern US it lives happily on the native grape vines, causing little damage, as it passes through its very complicated life cycle. Most grape varieties you can name belong to the Vitis Vinifera family, and this family turned out to be oh so susceptible to phylloxera.

While the damage to the UK was relatively minimal due to the few vineyards found there, the bug made its way to mainland Europe, where it happily fed of the roots of the Vinifera vines that were found all across the continent. The devastation was immense. Some accounts claim that as many as 90% of the vines were destroyed, in a time where some two out of three people were involved in some way in the wine industry. To add insult to injury many of these same vineyards has only recently recovered from a plague of downy mildew also known as oidium. Winemakers from across Europe fled to the New World, looking for new opportunities and new growing regions. Rioja too owes its existence to phylloxera as it was the Bordeaux wine makers trying to escape the plague that founded the region.

Various solutions to phylloxera were proposed, the most popular being the creation of hybrid crosses between the Vinifera vines and the seemingly immune Native American species. The wines that resulted from these hybrids were never quite as pleasing as the wines made from Vinifera grapes and so would eventually be disallowed in Europe. The immunity of the Native American grapes turned out to be the key, and it was found that grafting Vinifera to the roots of these native vines would control phylloxera. To this day it is still the most common solution. While never practiced on a widespread scale, flooding the vineyards also controls phylloxera and in Argentina especially, where this is a common way of watering the grapes, it has helped control the pest.

Training a shoot into the ground,

as seen in the photo above

Phylloxera hates sandy soil, and so there have always been pockets of vineyards and regions that have avoided the devastation. Notably Chile and Argentina, which along with their isolation can point to the soil as one of the chief reasons they have not succumbed to the plague. These are two of the few regions, along with parts of Washington State and Australia that still manage to grow grapes on their own rootstock. Since it is debatable that using the vines own roots has advantages, many in these regions still prefer to plant on root stock for the control it affords. Quality issues aside using the vines own roots allows the replanting of the vine by simply training a shoot into the ground, as seen in the photo above.

Chance has also spared a few token vineyards from phylloxera, the most famous being the Nacional vineyard from the Oporto producer Quinta de Noval and the vineyard responsible for the Bollinger Champagne Vieilles Vignes Françaises. The legend of these wines may be at least partially responsible for the perception that ungrafted vines produce superior fruit. I would tend to argue that the great age of these vineyards has more than a little to do with their success.

Another sort of fame, or perhaps infamy is for the rootstock AxR1. It was used widely in California for decades despite warnings from Europe about its unsuitability to control phylloxera and the fact that the widely used text books stated outright that it was not phylloxera resistant. The inevitable occurred in the 1980s, and Napa Valley and other parts of California began to suffer from infestation. Many excuses were made about different bio types and mutations, all which you still find in the current literature, despite the text books and experience from the vineyards of Europe. California is only now recouping from the cost of widespread replanting and reduced production.

The legacy of phylloxera is then more than its devastating potential

Phylloxera can only be controlled, not cured or eradicated. Those parts of the world that proudly promote their phylloxera free status are careful to do what they can to keep it that way. Virtual quarantines are in affect to ensure that the bug does not find tender unprotected roots to thrive on. Tools and boots are scrupulously cleaned and all nurseries are incredibly careful about what scions are released. It may be an uphill battle, as some vineyards in Australia have found. The question they have to ask is if it is worth it. Does growing on phylloxera resistant rootstock reduce the quality of the wine so much, or even at all, that the return on the investment for those efforts really pay off? It is hard to judge since the percentage of ungrafted vineyards around the world continues to shrink making comparisons that much more unlikely.

It turns out that rootstock is good for more than just reducing the threat of phylloxera. The selection of rootstock can also help to control the impact of the soil content turning traditionally less desirable locations into havens for vineyards. Nematodes, a wormy vineyard pest, may be controlled by the proper selection of rootstock, as can something as simple as vigor. The legacy of phylloxera is then more than its devastating potential, it has served to warn the world of the potential hazards of importing biology, and from the fight to control phylloxera comes the ability to control so much more.