Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #698330 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In 1864, France's wine industry was in mid-boom and on the verge of facing a modern crisis: an ecological disaster brought on by global trade. Samples of American grapevines carried Phylloxera vastatrix, a tiny aphid to which they were resistant, to France, whose vineyards were devastated by it. In this detailed, well-researched book, British journalist Campbell weaves the social and ecological strands of the upheaval together: its nearly unnoticeable beginnings, when vines in a single vineyard in the south of France began losing leaves in midsummer; the devastation of millions of acres of vineyards and with them the livelihood of small farmers; the search for the cause, full of mistakes and dead ends; the search for the cure, equally flub-filled and as often driven by superstition as empiricism; and, finally, the transatlantic solution. Even the taste of French wine was in danger, because the sturdy American vines produced appalling wine. Portraits of the researchers who carried the day, colorful quotes and occasional cliffhangers produce a story lively enough for amateur wine lovers and armchair historians. It's also a good summary for wine makers and enologists, with a clear discussion of the elaborate life cycle of the aphid, a fascinating look at the pride and prejudice that drove French wine makers and brief coverage of the Phylloxera crisis in California during the 1990s. Illus.
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From Booklist
Cognoscenti of the vine come in many varieties: snobs of taste, down-to-earth growers, agronomists. Add politicians, and the vintage cast is poised for drama when a crisis arrives, as one did for the French wine industry in the late 1860s. Writing in a clipped, mordant style, Campbell relays the history of devastation and recovery. The prime character among dozens is Jules-Emile Planchon, a botanist who identified the killer of grape vines: an aphid given the menacing scientific name of Phylloxera vestatrix (dry-leaf devastator). Various commissions were established and proposed palliatives, which were usually futile except for one that patriotic politicians could ill abide: grafting American vines onto French root stock. Repudiating Paris' prohibition of American imports, "in the fields of France peasants were voting with their grafting knives." In recounting the aphid's depredations as it crept across France's wine regions over four decades, Campbell's commentary turns sardonic, sympathetic, or bemused as he covers the myriad local and national reactions to the long-running crisis. Connoisseurs of good writing and good wine will love this book. Gilbert Taylor
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