In France, wine is a source of pride and a representation of French culture. With over 200 varieties of wine and more than 27,000 wineries throughout the country, France is a wine lover’s mecca. In the sixth century, as the Gauls spread along the Mediterranean and settled in southern France, the Roman Empire started licensing certain areas to produce wine.
During the Middle Ages, wine production spread into central France and flourished along rivers. Catholic influence was powerful, as the church owned a significant amount of land in France. Catholic monasteries maintained vineyards to produce wine for liturgical reasons and to generate income. Monks would tend to the vines every day, all the while learning valuable knowledge that they passed down for generations, keeping the wine industry alive. In the present day, French wineries are most commonly owned by French individuals and businesses. However, there has been debate about new foreign and celebrity influences in the French wine industry.
Even before external influences troubled the French wine industry, the country developed some of the strictest laws on wine production in the world. France has a unique geographic distribution in that they house nearly every type of terrain, from the nearly tropical climate along the Mediterranean to the Alps to the cold, northwestern plains. These varying climates provide agricultural diversity that makes the land perfect for winemaking. Therefore, French wine encompasses a wide variety of grapes. This is because there are select species of grapes that flourish in each region.
According to Direct Wine Imports, terroir is defined as the combination of factors associated with a vineyard. These factors include things like the amount and orientation of sunlight, soil pH and altitude. However, the meaning of terroir in France runs much deeper. It is defined as a rich, almost sacred connection between the earth and its crops. Because of the unique geographical features in each region in France, the same type of crop will taste different depending on where it was grown. These varying flavor profiles give each region a sense of identity, pride and individuality. Terroir emphasizes the relationship and significance of the natural world and agricultural production. This term and the ideas surrounding it give France both regional and national identity, especially in regard to grape growth and wine production.
After thousands of years of successful wine production, France could not predict the disaster they were once about to face.
In the mid-19th century, travel increased between Europe and the United States due to the invention of the steam engine. This escalation in movement and communication resulted in the trading of grape vines between France and the United States. The new species of grapes introduced to France housed nearly microscopic aphid-like bugs known as phylloxera. These pests suck the sap out of vine roots, slowly killing the plants. They wiped out almost half of France’s vineyards, in what came to be known as the Great French Wine Blight.
Because the aphids came from a U.S. grape species, scientists were baffled that French vineyards were ravaged by the bugs while vineyards around the U.S. were seemingly untouched. A Missouri entomologist, Charles Valentine Riley, observed that the phylloxera did not target the roots of Missouri vines. Using this knowledge, viticulturists grafted the roots of grapevines in Missouri and propagated them with the roots of French vines. However, quickly after the aphid incident seemed to subside, the vines began to die again. Missouri grape species were incapable of surviving in the climate of French soil.
Thomas Volney Munson, a horticulturist with extensive knowledge of Texas grapes, determined that Texas’s grape species were also unaffected by aphids at their roots. Better yet, Texas vines could withstand the soil climate in France. The same method of grafting was applied to transfer the shoots from Texas to France. This time around, the grapes flourished.
Although Missouri and Texas saved the day for France, they may not seem like the obvious choices for such a task. However, both states are promising wine-producing regions for similar reasons: they have a variety of geographic features such as hills, valleys, rivers and lakes. These provide both macro and micro-climates in which grapes can grow. Most wineries in Missouri fall along the Missouri River, which runs through Kansas City on the west side of the state, and down to Saint Louis in the east. The eastern side of Texas has a lower elevation; its lowlands and natural water sources are great for producing a wide variety of grapes.
Both Missouri and Texas are on the rise in the wine industry, due in part to their role in saving Europe’s wine powerhouse. This put both states on the map as contenders for high-quality wine production in the United States. Often, this story is told from either state’s point of view, excluding the other. Telling the story with the inclusion of both states has the potential to draw attention to the Midwest’s winemaking capabilities and promote local and national support for wineries that have been around for multiple generations. France put Missouri and Texas on a global stage in the late 1800s. Now, the states have to work together to maintain their winemaking reputations.
