Ok, hold on just a minute! There are bugs out there ruining American wine! This is something I simply won’t stand for! I don’t know about you, but when some little pest threatens my wine, I don’t take that threat very lightly. The phylloxera is a tiny insect capable of destroying entire vineyards, and it has decided to wage war against some of our American wineries. What’s worse is that it is very difficult to catch until it is too late. These pests attack the vines below the surface, killing the root system of a vine. And once they begin this process, it is impossible to stop. The only option is to try and slow it down. We’ve never really had to deal with these horrible pests in the US because it has always affected only European vines. But, there happen to be a few regions in America that use European root stock for their vines. Luckily, this has actually presented us with a way to potentially fix this disastrous problem by grafting European vines to American root stock. Of course, if the phylloxera find some way to now ruin our American roots, we’re going to have a much bigger problem on our hands.
How would the destruction of American wine affect you? Do you think these pests could potentially learn to destroy American vines as well as European?
