There’s probably more in this book than you ever wanted to know about the little yellow louse, Phylloxera, but it’s a fascinating read, almost like a mystery story.  Of course we know from the beginning who the villain is but the cast of characters who seek its origin, the charlatans who offer unbelievable remedies, the politicians who seek to ride the coattails of success and the poor neglected French wine grower who stoically works to save his vineyards are all portrayed vividly.

Anyone who enjoys wine has probably heard bits of the story; how the little bug was accidentally exported from the U.S. to France on root stock sent over for scientific study.  But Campbell

meticulously ferreted out just which shipment, to which importer, and the precise location that started the big debacle and presents the story with all the scientific information in a form that is easily understood.  The sometimes ludicrous, sometimes funny, sometimes diabolical schemes that resulted from the French government offering a substantial cash prize for an effective remedy seem endless but, no doubt, portray the desperation felt by the French wine industry as their vines continued to die.  And if you’re really interested, there’s a detailed explanation of the sex life of the little bug and the botanists who spent their careers trying to figure it out.

U.S. to the Rescue That the solution to the American louse infestation would also come from America was a bitter pill for many in France to swallow; but swallow they did and that was “how wine was saved for the world.” The description of how this grafting procedure is done, the concern as to whether the result would be “American” or still “French” is a bit tedious but essential to understanding wine as we know it today.

Most fun to read were all those fanciful attempts to control the spread of the devastation by such things as flooding vineyards, burning off the vines, sprinkling them with “holy water” from Lourdes, burying potatoes, bringing in frogs and every kind of chemical dousing you can think of – all to no avail.  Vast sums of money were involved in some of these “fixes” with French bureaucrats hopping on whichever bandwagon seemed to be in vogue at the moment.

Campbell makes quite a point of telling us that the story isn’t over yet.  When an outbreak of phylloxera was first noticed in Napa Valley in the mid-1980s, the scramble to find out why became the modern-day repeat of the French dilemma of the 1860s.  It wasn’t quite the same little bug; somehow the little aphid that had for centuries not affected the native American rootstock had mutated and adapted to such an extent that once again, roots were being sapped and vines died.

As a reference for how we arrived at our present-day world of wine and what might lie ahead, this book is not only for the average wine consumer, but also for scientists studying enology and the politicians who make the laws that govern production.  The photo section and maps are a bonus and nicely illustrate the story as it progresses.

Dave Ethridge is a free-lance wine writer, a wine columnist with the View Newspapers in southeastern Michigan and the Director of the Lapeer Chapter of Tasters Guild International.