Ep. 447 Sangiovese Lambrusco... | Phylloxera Part 1

Welcome to the Italian wine podcast. My name is Joy Living in. And for the next several weeks, I will be bringing you some choice, Mary, content from the book, San Jose, Lambrusto, and other vine stories written by Mr. Science himself, Professor at e Zoshansa and Sirena EIMazio, published by Positive Press dot net. To get a copy of the book, the kindle version is available on Amazon and hardcover copies are available from positive press. If you like the content we share each week, consider donating to our show. Find details at italian wine podcast dot com or on our social media channels. Sit back and get your geek on as we jump into the details, stories, and science of Italian wines and vines. Phylloxera, part one. Why do you caucasians have all this cargo? Technology, that is, and you bring it here to New Guinea, and we have absolutely none. Or otherwise put. How come the proud Native American warriors have been ousted by an invasion of farmers? The search for the answer to this question was posed by the indigenous Yali people to anthropologist Jared Diamond in nineteen seventy two. And it is the basis of his famous book, a Pulitzer Prize winner in nineteen ninety eight, guns, germs, and steel. A short history of everybody for the last thirteen thousand years. The answer lies almost entirely in three words found in the title. Weapons, steel, and yes, even diseases were all things owned and known by Europeans but foreign to Native American cultures. Now there is no doubt that the possession of firearms and knowledge of technology to produce steel have been an important aid in the subjugation of peoples and in the conquest of territories. But what about diseases? Diseases are probably the single most powerful destructive force because they can be devious and silent. Doing their damage until it is too late to fight them. Most of the time, that which attacks and eventually kills a native American would do the same to a European. But there are also diseases that come into existence that grow and evolve in close association with specific human populations. They exist in a context where disease and man co evolve living side by side with one another. Avoiding annihilation, putting systems of mutual cooperation in place. This story is about farmers who were able to defeat the threat which will be discussed in this chapter. A silent ruthless and unsuspected killer, labet, the beast. As the French called it in the nineteenth century, the French were the first Europeans to have to deal with it. How did a small yellowish insect almost invisible to the naked eye and harmless in many parts of the world almost destroy all European vineyards and almost completely exterminate an entire species? It was eighteen sixty three when entomologist John Obadiah Westwood. A professor at Oxford University curiously observed galls on the leaves of a vine in a London greenhouse. These are more or less large bubbles that form on a leaf attacked by an insect. They are created to guard and protect the eggs and the first larval forms of the insect. As a good researcher of his time, Westwood noted down what he observed but did not pay particular attention and did not feel he should share the discovery with his colleagues. He did not know that in that same year, the vines in the Guard region, South of France, would begin to show signs of apparently inexplicable but above all irreversible and incurable deterioration. It was the beginnings of the end. An epidemic exploded that killed without having shown signs of its arrival and without discrimination. It spread throughout Europe and other wine growing areas in the world between the second half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. But what led to the arrival of Filoxera in France and its rapid spread throughout Europe despite the strict safety measures applied by the various countries? It all started with the wealthy middle class as they engaged in a new trend, that of introducing exotic plant species from faraway countries to enrich their gardens. This form of collecting was a way of overcoming boredom. The vine from the United States was also one of the species being collected. Many American vine species were shipped concealing phylloxera on their roots. Fast steam navigation had been recently introduced making connections between Europe and the United States much faster. And this allowed the insect to better survive the journey. Arriving on the old continent unscathed. The nineteenth century with the construction of the first railway lines facilitated transport and reduced distances. This was a period of general prosperity that led to an increase in consumption and production. This corresponds to a great expansion and affirmation of French Viticulture not only for the large landowners, but also for the small Vignerons. Hard working owners who passed on land and knowledge from generation to generation. According to the calculations by the Senator of the time, Françoisois Tamisier, the vineyards of France were already worth more than a billion and a half francs. The interest in the game was therefore considerable and it immediately became clear that they had to work quickly so that the Filoxera situation would not get completely out of hand. Commities were formed and scholars commissioned to provide reports on what had happened in order to devise possible solutions. But it was not an easy task and the first attempts were completely unsuccessful. Finally, on July fifteenth eighteen sixty eight, the umpteenth new commission was formed by the botanist, Jules Emeille Planchen. Gaston Basilille, a lawyer, winemaker, and president of the Agricultural Society, and Felix Sahoot, landowner and agronomist. They examined a dying vineyard in Saint Marta De Krau in Heru. Again, everything seemed to come to nothing since dead plants do not give us any particular clues. The winning idea was to eradicate live anchors and to evaluate the only thing that no one had yet considered, the roots. Hundreds of small yellow plump insects appeared under the magnifying glass scurrying within the pots greedy for the flowing plant lymph. They are everywhere on the deepest roots as well as on the most superficial ones, says the report of the commission. Obviously, the results which appeared alarming are immediately disseminated and shared But as often happens, few gave weight to the news considering that the insect could not be the cause of the disease but one of the consequences. At first, in fact, the bet. Was even called poor little creature, unjustly accused. Fortunately, the nineteenth century was the century of positivism and Darwin, and it would not take long for several botanists and entomologists to begin to find similarities between the little poor creature and an American insect belonging to the family of phylloxyridae. The only difference is that the American insect was mainly located on the leaves of the vine. While the one found in France seemed to live mainly on the roots. In the meantime, we have arrived at July eighteen sixty nine. Leo La Lamonde, Abordeaux, based producer who had collected a bunch of wild vines brought over from Missouri realized that his plants had only suffered damage to the leaves and no damage to the roots. He comes forward essentially suggesting that the material of American or was resistant to the insect. More or less, at the same time, curious about the French situation, some American entomologists at home, in particular Charles Valentine Riley, found the presence of the insect on the roots of the plants. The idea that the source of the problem was located on the American continent was beginning to spread. From that moment on, a real witch hunt began for the owners of vineyards responsible for importing American plants. People wanted to put them in a pillory. The vehemence of their reaction is understandable. The evil plight was continuing to spread. Shortly before this Viticulture was the pride of the French economy and now a huge problem was reducing many families to ruin. Before the invasion, production fluctuated between forty and seventy million hectol leaders a year. In eighteen seventy nine, it fell to twenty five million. The south of France was the first area to be invaded, then the scourge turned to other wine growing regions throughout Europe, Portugal, Austria, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. This has been phylloxera Part one. Join us next week for part two. Thank you for listening to this week's installment of San Jose, Lambrusco, and other vine stories. We hope you expanded your horizons and gave your brain cells an Italian wine workout. We'll see you again next Thursday and remember the kindle version of book is available on Amazon and hardcover copies are available from positive press dot net. If you feel inspired to make a donation to our show, please visit us at the Italian wine podcast dot com. Find Italian wine podcast on face book and Instagram, our Twitter handle is at itawine Podcast.