Grape phylloxera, Daktulosphaira vitifoliae (Fitch), also known as Phylloxera vastatrix (Planchon), is the vine's fiercest enemy. In 1863, Bazille identified the aphid that started invading two major areas: The Gard and the Gironde. Phylloxera spread out of the two French departments, and 30 years later, took over the entire French vineyard and gained ground in Europe and North Africa. Today, phylloxera has plagued every vine-growing country. Some regions of the world, such as Turkey, California and South America are still facing its progression.

In France, phylloxera deteriorated most native Vitis Vinifera varieties. After the disaster, French vineyard had to be recreated by grafting Vitis Vinifera on resistant American Vitis rootstocks, and by using direct producer hybrids resulting from the crossing of Vitis Vinifera and American varieties. Thus phylloxera was eradicated from Europe for almost a century, but reappeared in California at the beginning of the 1990s, due to the use of insufficiently resistant rootstocks (AxRI).

Fighting phylloxera

Our long experience proved that grafting Vitis Vinifera on sufficiently resistant rootstocks is a safe and permanent way to protect vine from phylloxera. A whole range of rootstocks, adapted to various types of soil, and obtained from V. riparia, V. rupestris, and V. berlandieri varieties, can offer an adequate guaranty. In some cases, the use of V. Vinifera as a reproducer for limestone compatible rootstocks affected the resistance to phylloxera. 41 B offers minimum resistance to phylloxera while Vinifera Rupestris, created by Couderc (1202, 93-5), Ganzin (Aramonrupestris n° 1, 2 and 9) cannot be used due to its low resistance level to phylloxera.

Planting vines in sandy or wet soils (considering the obstacles due to excessive humidity) only made it possible to preserve Vitis Vinifera ungrafted vines in a few regions.

Submerging vines in winter for a 40-day stage prevents the proliferation of pests on roots, but the technique can only be used in lowlands close to a watercourse with a sufficient flow rate (The Camargue or the Aude). The same goes for abundant irrigation during its growing stages and in summertime.