4 ms·
fun fact: all french grapes are grown from american root stock [1,2] due to an infestation in the 1960s. one could argue it is a benefit so that if either count
by SavantIdiot 5y ago
fun fact: all french grapes are grown from american root stock [1,2] due to an infestation in the 1960s. one could argue it is a benefit so that if either country is struck with something like this for truffles, they can share.
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[1] https://www.alearned.com/wine/ https://www.alearned.com/wine/
[2] https://gizmodo.com/how-the-great-french-wine-blight-changed-grapes-forever-1691598233 https://gizmodo.com/how-the-great-french-wine-blight-changed...
- ptha 5y agoGreat articles, it seems that most (not just French) wines are produced by grafting wines onto a phylloxera (insects that feed on the vines) resistant rootstock. From the gizmodo article: It's hard to compare modern wine, which is all grown on grafted vines, to pre-phylloxera wines (the notable exceptions being Chilean wine, and wine from the occasional European vineyard that was spared from the blight). And: Though modern chemistry and genetics have given agriculture plenty of new tools to fight pests, the ancient practice of grafting, honed during the Great French Wine Blight, remains the method of choice for protecting grape vines. "Rootstocks are the 'cure-all' for many soil-borne pests and diseases, but not all," Walker says. "In the past fumigation and pesticides controlled some of these issues, but if phylloxera are present, rootstocks are essential."