Alicia Steffann

They rated vineyards on three factors, soil, sun exposure, and susceptibility to blight.

This, in essence, created a tiered system of first, second, and third class wines.

Like the designation of the Opimian vintage during the time of the Romans, it was an important step in winemaking, recognizing that many choices and factors made a difference in the quality of each wine.

Historically speaking, the prevalence of New World winemaking became both a blessing and a curse to European vintners in the 19th century.

Apparently, enthusiastic English botanists imported a pest called the loxera, bringing it over to England on cuttings from American vines.

Although the vines on American shores were already resistant to the insect, the vines on the other side of the Atlantic were not.

Phylloxera destroyed the vineyards in England and then was subsequently transferred to the mainland, devastating the European winemaking industry.

The first sign of the blight appeared in the southern Rhone region of France.

It was not long before the destruction spread across the continent.

Dryer and sandier areas fared somewhat better than others.

Notably, the Riesling grapes in the Mosul region stood up to the crisis well due to the slate present in the soil.

Similarly, resistant were the vines on the slopes of Sicily's volcano, Mount Etna.

Today, a few tiny pockets of surviving vines protect the legacy of some old-world varietals.

However, experts estimate that somewhere between two thirds and nine tenths of Europe's vineyards were destroyed by the tiny invader.

Reportedly, some French winemakers tried remedies such as burying toads under the vines to draw the poison away.

However, the blight was eventually halted only by scientific research.

It turns out that the top of the vine, not the root, determines how a grape will evolve.

Following that principle, scientists were able to graft existing old-world varietals onto roots from American grapevines and still produce their customary grape.

Another way of approaching the problem was by breeding new vines via hybridization.

This was an imperfect solution as the new vines were not completely resistant to the pest, and they had the added drawback that their grapes were not quite the same.