French wine is the undisputed king of luxury. But in the 1860s, a silent, invisible killer crossed the Atlantic and nearly wiped the entire industry off the face of the Earth. From burying live toads to million-dollar bounties, this is the absurd, forgotten story of the Great French Wine Blight—and how an American weed saved the most prestigious drink in the world.
French wine history, Phylloxera epidemic, Great French Wine Blight, history documentary, strange history, historical disasters, wine making, grafting vines, weird history, true stories, history explained.
Officially documented facts confirm the timeline of the Phylloxera epidemic, the devastation of European rootstocks, and the eventual grafting of Vitis vinifera onto resistant American rootstocks. The specific anecdotes regarding farmers burying toads and utilizing animal blood are widely cited historical records of the desperate agricultural experimentation that occurred prior to Planchon’s microscopic identification of the aphid.