The Phylloxera, a thirty-year war (1870-1900)

By Gilbert Garrier In 1863, while the peasant world seemed to be experiencing a true golden age in France, some vine stocks began to wither in the Gard region. The culprit was identified in 1868: it was an American aphid, named Phylloxera vastatrix. A true invasion swept over the French vineyards. Never before, in the memory of winemakers, had the vines died so rapidly. Public authorities, scientists, and winegrowers joined forces. The vines were defended vine by vine with treatments that were often fanciful at first, then long ineffective, and finally difficult and expensive. Thanks to American rootstocks, the vineyard was gradually reconstituted. At the end of this thirty-year war, the wine-growing France, impoverished but victorious, had changed its appearance. More modern, more technical, it presented at the beginning of the century the essential features of today's vineyard. Gilbert Garrier, grandson of a winemaker, history graduate, author of a thesis on the winemakers of Beaujolais, was a professor at the University Lumière - Lyon II from 1972 to 1995, and dedicated numerous works to the centuries-old history of vine and wine. Publisher: Oenoplurimedia (2006), 14x22 cm, 175 pages, paperback.