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by VBprogrammer 910 days ago
There is an aphid which attacks grape vines that originated in North America. It's the reason that much of the European wine varieties has to be grafted onto American root to survive.
1 comments

This is a great, interesting example. From the Wikipedia page on Phylloxera:

> In France alone, total wine production fell from 84.5 million hectolitres in 1875 to only 23.4 million hectolitres in 1889. Some estimates hold that between two-thirds and nine-tenths of all European vineyards were destroyed.

Little known fact: we lost the grape used to produce mustard before Phylloxera.
Can you explain? I don't understand, as mustard is made from the mustard plant, not grapes.
Mustard grains are soaked in wine vinegar nowadays.

Before phylloxera, a grape that gives a wine with high acidity was used.

It went extinct.

correction: mustard flour, not grains.
Dijon