Thanks Maleth. Apparently, American vines were resistant, and so European grape varieties were grafted onto American rootstock.
"Use of a resistant, or tolerant, rootstock, developed by
Charles Valentine Riley in collaboration with
J. E. Planchon and promoted by
T. V. Munson, involved grafting a
Vitis vinifera scion onto the roots of a resistant
Vitis aestivalis or other American native species. This is the preferred method today, because the rootstock does not interfere with the development of the wine grapes (more technically, the
genes responsible for the grapes are not in the rootstock but in the scion), and it furthermore allows the customization of the rootstock to soil and weather conditions, as well as desired vigor."
"The use of resistant American rootstock to guard against phylloxera also brought about a debate that remains unsettled to this day: whether self-rooted vines produce better wine than those that are grafted. Of course, the argument is essentially irrelevant wherever phylloxera exists. Had American rootstock not been available and used, there would be no
V. vinifera wine industry in Europe or most places other than Chile, Washington State, and most of Australia.
One can still drink some of these pre-epidemic wines:
Cyprus was spared by the phylloxera plague, and thus its wine stock has not been grafted for phylloxera resistant purposes."
"The only European grapes that are natively resistant to phylloxera are the
Assyrtiko grape which grows on the volcanic island of Santorini, Greece, although it is not clear whether the resistance is due to the rootstock itself or the volcanic ash on which it grows; and the
Juan Garcia grape variety, autochthonous to the medieval village of Fermoselle in Spain... where the microclimatic conditions don't allow the phylloxera to grow."
"To escape the threat of phylloxera, wines have been produced since 1979 on the sandy beaches of
Provence’s Bouches-du-Rhône, which extends from the Gard Coast to the waterfront village of Saintes Maries de la Mer. The sand, sun and wind in this area has been a major deterrent to phylloxera. The wine produced here is called
"Vins des Sables" or "wines of the sands".
[4]"
"According to wine critic and author
Kerin O'Keefe, thanks to tiny parcels of vineyards throughout Europe which were inexplicably unscathed, it is still possible to get a taste of wines as they were before the phylloxera devastation.
[6]
For no obvious reason, three tiny parcels of ungrafted
Pinot noir escaped phylloxera, making it possible to produce
one of the rarest and most expensive Champagnes available: Bollinger Vieilles Vignes Françaises.[6]
A rare vintage port is made from ungrafted vines grown on a small parcel, called
Nacional, in the heart of the Quinta do Noval estate. Again, no plausible reason exists why this plot survived while others succumbed.
[6]
Another vineyard untouched by the blight is the
Lisini estate in Montalcino in Italy: a half-hectare vineyard of
Sangiovese, with vines dating back to the mid-1800s, which inexplicably never succumbed to phylloxera. Since 1985 the winery has produced a few precious bottles of
Prefillossero (Italian for "before the phylloxera"). The wine has devout followers, including
Italian wine critic Luigi Veronelli, who inscribed on a bottle of the 1987, on show at the winery, that drinking Prefillossero was like listening to ‘the earth singing to the sky’.[6]"
I just love wine critics...I wonder if they wax so poetic about their significant others???:grin:
Some of these cost the earth from a quick check, so I don't know how many I'll be able to try. I've had Montalcino, in Tuscany, and I can't imagine the pre phylloxera version being more wonderful, but I'll take it on faith.
Maleth, wine courses are all the range around here. I took one and it was great fun, not least because of all the tastings. Normally you'd never get to try some of these wines, and you get to figure out at least what varieties and blends you prefer.