Hazards of Making Wine

Phylloxera, a Grape Vine Hazard

Winemaking can be a difficult thing. Factors such as spring frost, hail during the flowering and after the fruit is formed, drought and floods during harvest have to be confronted every year. My father in law was a wheat farmer in North Dakota who understood everything I told him about viticulture. This article is about a root louse pest.

I had always wondered why people did not plant French wine grapes from the species Vitis Vinifera in New York State and Virginia since they are about the same latitude as Napa and Sonoma. It turn out that they had but the vines always died.  It is a bit hazy but someone had taken Concord grapes which are Vitis Labrusca to England and somehow they made it to France. Phylloxera consists of aphid like creatures that are born pregnant and suck on grape vine roots. They need to be magnified 32 times to be seen. Eventually European wine regions were devastated.

French viticulturists decided that instead of trying to find an antidote in France, to find one in North America. Somewhere near Lubbock Texas, they founds vines that Spanish priests had cultivated. The species is Vitis Ruprestis. Most people refer to it as the St. George clone. The interesting thing is that this grape is not used to make wine. The rootstock is resistant to phiylloxera and is planted in Europe and California with French varietals grafted to it. Grape vines are trellised because like Ivy, Blackberries, and Morning Glory, they will take root if they contact the ground.   There are still pre-phylloxera vineyards around Mt. Vesuvius and Southwestern France. One can grow the original French rootstock in Chile and Washington State. The volcanic composition of the soil defeats the pest. I have seen pictures of trees trellised over 2 meters high from a property owned by Feudi just below Mt. Vesuvius.