Phylloxera by Christy Campbell, HarperCollins, 拢17.99, ISBN 0007115350 Reviewed by Roy Herbert
THIS is a story of a great escape. In the early 1860s France was invaded by a tiny aphid with a voracious appetite. It munched relentlessly through the roots of vines, spread at great speed and was soon devastating the famous vineyards of France. It dawned on the French winemakers that they were facing catastrophe. All wines, from the classed growths of Bordeaux to vins ordinaires were doomed.
Soon it seemed that vineyards all over Europe would suffer the same disaster. No prayers or treatments, such as pumping insecticides into the ground from huge syringes, had any success. There was a faint hope. Vines were available in the US that had developed resistance to the aphid, now named phylloxera. But the dismayed French had a low opinion of American vines, convinced that their grapes could never produce wines of the French character.
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Christy Campbell details the alarms and excursions of this cliff-hanger and rescue in a splendidly readable book. No wine lover will read Phylloxera without (a) wondering what those pre-phylloxera wines were like and (b) sweating slightly.