George Gale
Dying on the Vine, chronicles 150 years of scientific warfare against the grapevineâ€™s worst enemy: phylloxera. In a book that is highly relevant for the wine industry today, George Gale describes the biological and economic disaster that unfolded when a tiny, root-sucking insect invaded the south of France in the 1860s, spread throughout Europe, and journeyed across oceans to Africa, South America, Australia, and Californiaâ€”laying waste to vineyards wherever it landed. He tells how scientists, viticulturalists, researchers, and others came together to save the worldâ€™s vineyards and, with years of observation and research, developed a strategy of resistance. Among other topics, the book discusses phylloxera as an important case study of how one invasive species can colonize new habitats and examines Californiaâ€™s past and present problems with it.
Dying on the Vine: How Phylloxera Transformed Wine