New World Wines - Old World Vines
Interestingly, the New World vineyards can lay claim to some of the oldest vines in the world. The foundation for the cultivation of vines in Australia was directly based on a large collection of cuttings dating from 1831, the result of an expedition across France and Spain to acquire samples of all the major varieties. Vineyards in Chile have an even more impressive lineage, having been introduced by Spanish Catholic priests during the 14th Century.
In the mid-1800s Europe received a nasty little visitor from North America called phylloxera, a sap sucking cousin of the aphid that devastated European vineyards, particularly in France.
The solution was to develop hybrid strains based on resistant North American rootstock. In this way rootstocks can be chosen to cope with the local soil and weather conditions without interfering with the grape that grows on it.
There is no denying that Europe does produce some of the finest wines in the world, but if you want the original then, ironically, come to the New World.
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