A successful and adventurous journey across the United States in the midst of the phylloxera crises in the 19th century helped save the French vineyards. Pierre Viala, a French botanist, had been sent to find a solution to the phylloxera crisis. He found it in Texas.
Viala brought back home an American vine which seemed to thrive on the same type of calcareous soil found in Champagne and Cognac. He had discovered a rootstock that worked for these regions and many others.
Read more in Britt’s article on BKWine Magazine, originally published on Forbes: Rootstocks, grafting and when French wine almost died but was saved by Texas | Britt on Forbes.
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