The biggest disaster to strike the wine world

Imagine a world without wine…there are many people in the world who don’t appreciate that the wonderful nectar nearly didn’t make it through the 1800s.

In the 1850s there was a world epidemic which killed nearly all of the worlds vineyards.  This almost microscopic, pale yellow, evil sap sucking insect is called Phylloxera.  It feeds on the leaves and roots of grapevines, cutting off the flow of nutrients and water to the vine, resulting in death.

In france, the farmers became so desperate that they took to burying a live toad by the root of the vine in order to draw out the poison.

Only the grape growing regions of the world which are protected by the high altitudes of the Andes escaped unscathed.  In Chile and Argentina you still find the least problems with pests and disease which makes wine production that much more economical.  The upshot of this is that you get great quality wines at lower prices – an all-round win!

You can check out our great quality, phylloxera free wines here ->