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The Great French Wine Blight was a severe blight of the mid-19th century that destroyed many of the vineyards in France and laid waste to the wine industry. It was caused by an aphid (the actual genus of the aphid is still debated, although it is largely considered to have been a species of ''Daktulosphaira vitifoliae'', commonly known as grape phylloxera) that originated in North America and was carried across the Atlantic in the late 1850s. While France is considered to have been worst affected, the blight also did a great deal of damage to vineyards in other European countries. How the ''Phylloxera'' aphid was introduced to Europe remains debated: American vines had been taken to Europe many times before, for reasons including experimentation and trials in grafting, without consideration of the possibility of the introduction of pestilence. While the ''Phylloxera'' was thought to have arrived around 1858, it was first recorded in France in 1863, near the former province of Languedoc. It is argued by some that the introduction of such pests as phylloxera was only a problem after the invention of steamships, which allowed a faster journey across the ocean, and consequently allowed durable pests, such as the ''Phylloxera'', to survive. Eventually, following Jules-Émile Planchon's discovery of the ''Phylloxera'' as the cause of the blight,〔G. Bazille, J.-E. Planchon and Sahut (1868) ("Sur une maladie de la vigne actuellement régnante en Provence" ) (On a disease of grapevines presently prevailing in Provence), ''Comptes rendus'', 67 : 333-336.〕 and Charles Valentine Riley's confirmation of Planchon's theory, Leo Laliman and Gaston Bazille, two French wine growers, proposed that the European vines be grafted to the resistant American rootstock that were not susceptible to the ''Phylloxera''. While many of the French wine growers disliked this idea, many found themselves with no other option. The method proved to be an effective remedy. The "Reconstitution" (as it was termed) of the many vineyards that had been lost was a slow process, but eventually the wine industry in France was able to return to relative normality. == Background == The aphid that was the central source of the damage in France was first noted following the growing of the European vine ''Vitis vinifera'' by French colonists in Florida,〔 in the 16th century. These plantations were a failure, and later experiments with related species of vine also failed, although the reason for these failures appears to have been a mystery to the French colonists. It is known today that it was a species of North American grape phylloxera that caused these early vineyards to fail; the venom injected by the ''Phylloxera'' causes a disease that is quickly fatal to the European varieties of vine.〔Ellen M. Harkness, Richard P. Vine, Sally J. Linton ''Winemaking: From Grape Growing to Marketplace''. Springer, 2002. ISBN 0-306-47272-4〕 The aphids initially went unnoticed by the colonists, despite their great numbers, and the pressure to successfully start a vineyard in America at the time.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Great French Wine Blight )〕 It became common knowledge among the settlers that their European vines, of the ''vinifera.'' variety, simply would not grow in American soil, and they resorted to growing native American plants, and established plantations of these native vines. Exceptions did exist; ''vinifera'' plantations were well-established in California before the aphids found their way there. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Great French Wine Blight」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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