| In
the mid-1860s, grapevines in
southeastern France inexplicably began to wither and die. French
botanist
Jules-Émile Planchon was sent to investigate. Magnifying
glass in
hand, he discovered that the vine roots were covered in microscopic
yellow
insects. The aphids would be named Phylloxera vastatrix
— “the dry
leaf devastator.” Where they had come from was a
mystery.
Soon
the noblest vineyards in Europe
and California came under biological siege. No one could slow
phylloxera’s
maddening, destructive pace. The French government offered a prize of
three
hundred thousand gold francs for a remedy, and increasingly bizarre
suggestions
flooded in. Planchon believed he had the answer and set out to convince
the skeptical wine-making and scientific establishments. Aided by the
American
entomologist Charles Valentine Riley and a decade of research into the
strange life history of the insect, Planchon at long last proved that
the
remedy rested within the vines themselves.
The
Botanist and the Vintner
is an astonishing account of one of the earliest and most successful
applications
of science to an ecological disaster. And even now, the story continues
as new strains of phylloxera attack vineyards in France, California,
and
New Zealand. |
The Botanist and
the Vintner
How Wine Was Saved
for the World
by Christy Campbell
Algonquin Books of
Chapel Hill, 2005
Order
a copy.
Reviewed
in The Book Stall |
