German immigrants coming to eastern Missouri planted grapes because they found that the soil and climate were similar to that of their homeland. The first grapes matured in 1845, and soon wine was the major product in the area.
There were some major shakeups in the industry in the late 19th century.It started after wines from Missouri began overshadowing European wines at international competitions; during the 1851 Vienna Worlds Fair, Missouri wines took 8 of the 12 gold medals. To fight fire with fire, French vintners began importing root stock from America, mainly the Norton/Cynthiana vines that were producing most of the award winners.
Root louse hits California and French vineyards
Nobody knew until it was too late that the American vines carried the root louse called phyloxera. The tiny pest, no larger than a grass seed, had no effect on vines in the Ozarks, but once in France it began systematically destroying the vineyards. The plague spread across France, and by 1880 nearly all French vineyards were destroyed or severely damaged. The plague threatened to cross boundaries into other countries, but a winemaker from Neosho, MO, named Hermann Jaeger and George Hussman, a University of Missouri professor, found a cure for the plague. By grafting the more sensitive vines onto hardy American root stocks, an immunity to the louse was created.
French import grape root stocks from Missouri !!!
These two men literally saved the French wine industry, and the episode also radically changed the way the French produced wine thereafter. After the vineyards were destroyed, many farmers began growing other crops that required less of an investment of money and time; wheat or corn, or any other crop, is much easier to grow than wine grapes. When Jaeger and Hussman proved their new strains were immune to the plague, the French imported from Missouri an estimated 10 million root stocks between 1885 and 1890 and replanted their vineyards.
Most large French vineyards were consigned to history, and the smaller ones became much more specialized. Rather than covering hundreds of acres, they became much smaller, and quality and individuality became more important than quantity. Consequently, French wines became better than ever.
Thank you Missouri for saving French vineyards
The French were grateful for the Missouri root stocks, and in 1889 bestowed the Cross of the Legion of Honor and the national Order of Knighthood on Hermann Jaeger. A statue of a young woman holding an older woman -- symbolic of the young America helping its motherland -- was erected on the campus of an agricultural college in Montpellier with a plaque thanking the Missouri wine industry for saving the French vineyards.
Missouri vines save California vineyards also
Today Missouri winemakers are especially fond of telling what happened when California needed a supply of root stock after its vineyards began dying of the root louse: Rather than going to Missouri for their supply, they imported the Missouri-born root stocks from France. Somehow, having to say their vines came from Missouri (shudder) was too grim to contemplate, Missourians like to say.
Exerpted from of a story from Chicago Tribune, May 8, 2000, by Archie Satterfield
This story and many others is in Mr. Satterfield's book, "Country Roads of Missouri". See archiesatterfield.com. He grew up in West Plains.
