Phylloxera in the Charentes: How the Cognac Vineyards Nearly Vanished Before Being Reborn

In 1868 an almost invisible insect began destroying the vines of the Charentes. Within a few decades it transformed the landscape, ruined estates and threatened the entire Cognac economy. Yet out of this disaster a profoundly renewed vineyard would be born.

When vines were the wealth of the Charentes

Today the rows of vines stretching around Cognac, Segonzac or Pons seem to have always been part of the landscape.

Yet at the end of the 19th century these lands went through one of the greatest agricultural disasters in their history.

Before phylloxera arrived, the Charente vineyard was immense. The vine held an essential place in the rural economy and supported far more than the growers alone: distillers, coopers, merchants, carriers and labourers all depended directly or indirectly on the production of wines and eaux-de-vie.

In 1875 the Charente harvest still reached 14.1 million hectolitres of wine.

But this prosperity rested on a fragile balance.

An insect from North America was about to upset it.

1868: an invisible enemy arrives in the vineyard

The first outbreaks of phylloxera were reported in the Charentes in 1868, in the canton of Pons, notably in the commune of Montils.

The parasite attacks mainly the roots of the vines. The vines weaken, produce less, and eventually die.

The danger is all the greater because the damage often spreads underground, before any symptoms become visible.

In 1870 phylloxera reached the plantings of Chérac. The following year it entered the Cognac vineyard through Merpins and Crouin.

Then came 1874, the year of the “great invasion”.

From then on, the disaster affected a growing share of the two Charente departments.

Growers watched helplessly as their land withered.

Within a few years, the vineyard collapses

The figures show the scale of the disaster.

In 1877 the Charente harvest reached only about 8.5 million hectolitres. Two years later it fell below 2 million.

Yields, formerly between 30 and 45 hectolitres per hectare, sometimes dropped to just 4 to 9 hectolitres.

In Charente-Maritime the situation was particularly dramatic. In 1879, out of 161,000 hectares of vines, only 14,000 hectares were still intact, while 29,000 hectares were being grubbed up.

In the canton of Pons, half the plantings were already out of production by 1876.

The destruction was no longer limited to a few plots. A whole agricultural system was collapsing.

Grande Champagne, a terroir hit especially hard

At the heart of the Cognac country, the limestone lands of Grande Champagne suffered badly from the crisis.

These chalky soils, renowned for the quality of the eaux-de-vie they produce, would also complicate reconstruction.

Phylloxera caused many plantings to disappear. Some plots were abandoned, others converted to crops or pasture.

But the real difficulty would appear when the time came to replant.

The first American rootstocks, able to resist the parasite, were not always suited to soils rich in active lime. In particular they suffered from chlorosis, a disorder that compromises their growth.

While some areas began to rebuild their vineyards, the chalky Champagne had to wait longer.

Its reconstruction only really began around 1895, and the first replantings remained very localised.

A human disaster: villages empty out

Behind the disappearance of the vines lay a considerable social upheaval.

Families lost their income. Some farms could no longer be kept going. Investment stopped and part of the population left the countryside.

Between 1876 and 1891 the canton of Segonzac lost 3,066 inhabitants.

In some communes of the Champagne around Segonzac, the population fell by 20 to 30%.

The value of land collapsed too.

At Touzac, in Grande Champagne, a hectare of vineyard land that could be worth 6,000 francs now changed hands for only 750 francs.

This fall in prices did, however, encourage the arrival of new farmers, notably from Poitou and Limousin.

The human landscape of the Charentes changed along with its agricultural landscape.

Cognac itself is under threat

The disappearance of the vine naturally reduced the volume of wine available for distillation.

At first the merchant houses drew on their reserves of old eaux-de-vie to keep trading.

But stocks are not inexhaustible.

As the shortage set in, prices rose sharply.

In 1879 a hectolitre of Grande Champagne eau-de-vie was worth about 180 francs. In 1886–1887 it exceeded 750 francs.

Cognac became scarcer, and eaux-de-vie produced before the disaster took on considerable value.

The phylloxera crisis therefore threatened more than the growers: it weakened an entire regional economy built around the vine.

Science to the rescue of the Charente vines

Faced with the disaster, growers, merchants and scientists looked for solutions.

As early as 1874, under the presidency of Édouard Martell, the Cognac trade founded a Viticulture Committee and financed the opening of a viticultural station.

Several treatments were tried, notably carbon disulphide from 1878.

But these methods remained costly and insufficient to save the vineyard for good.

The real solution emerged gradually thanks to American vines.

Some of them have a root system that is naturally more resistant to phylloxera.

The idea was therefore to graft French grape varieties onto American rootstocks.

This process keeps the qualities of the traditional grapes while protecting the roots against the parasite.

However, rootstocks able to tolerate the limestone soils of the Charentes still had to be found.

The research of scientists such as Pierre Viala, Alexis Millardet and Louis Ravaz gradually helped to solve this problem.

Charente viticulture then entered a new era.

1890–1910: the long rebirth of the vineyard

From the 1890s, reconstruction gathered pace.

Nurseries had to be created, grafted plants produced, rootstocks selected, growers trained and, above all, the financial means to plant found again.

The merchant houses took part in this effort.

During the winter of 1897–1898, the house of James Hennessy distributed 32,900 grafted plants free of charge in several communes of the canton of Segonzac.

Agricultural lectures were also organised to explain the new techniques of grafting, pruning, treatment and fertilisation.

Even so, the rebirth remained slow and uneven.

At the start of the 20th century, the Charente vineyard was still far from its pre-crisis extent.

Historical data mention about 280,000 hectares before the great destruction, compared with 62,000 hectares planted in 1905.

Reconstruction was therefore not a return to what had been.

It was the birth of a new vineyard.

A new vineyard, new grape varieties

The phylloxera crisis changed wine-growing practices for good.

Before the disaster, Folle Blanche held a major place among the grape varieties of the Charentes.

But this variety proved fragile in the face of certain diseases.

As reconstruction went on, Ugni blanc gradually gained ground. Hardier and particularly well suited to producing wines for distillation, it eventually became largely dominant.

Today it accounts for more than 98% of the plantings of the Cognac vineyard.

This shift is one of the most visible legacies of the crisis.

The present-day vineyard thus rests on technical and agronomic choices born of the need to survive.

A rebirth that prepares the return to the Champagne lands

At the turn of the 20th century, the rebuilding of the Charente vineyard was still far from complete.

But the foundations of its rebirth were now in place.

Growers had better-suited rootstocks, were gradually mastering grafting and understood the constraints of the different terroirs better.

This progress opened the way to a new stage: the reconquest of abandoned vineyard land, notably in the limestone areas of Grande Champagne and Petite Champagne.

This movement would continue over the following decades.

The disaster thus helped to transform the geography of Charente viticulture, by forcing growers to rethink their plantings and their production methods.

Conclusion: a vineyard saved by perseverance

Crossing the landscapes of Grande Champagne, Petite Champagne or the Borderies today, it is hard to imagine that these lands went through such desolation.

And yet behind today’s vines lies a history of destruction, research and reconstruction.

Phylloxera ruined estates, upended villages and threatened the very future of Cognac.

But it also led growers to transform their practices and to build a new vineyard.

The rebirth of the Charente vineyard was not only a victory over an insect. It was the result of several decades of effort, innovation and handing down.

A history that reminds us that today’s vineyard landscapes are also the legacy of the generations who refused to let the vine disappear.

Read on: 1910–1939: How the Cognac Vineyards Won Back Their Champagne Lands

Also worth reading: Fine à l’eau: Cognac and Water, the Belle Époque Way

Key dates

• 1868: phylloxera appears in the canton of Pons.
• 1871: the parasite reaches the Cognac vineyard.
• 1874: the great invasion and the creation of the Viticulture Committee.
• 1879: the Charente harvest collapses below 2 million hectolitres.
• 1880s: experiments with American rootstocks develop.
• Around 1895: late start of replanting in the chalky Champagne lands.
• 1897–1898: thousands of grafted plants distributed in the canton of Segonzac.
• 1905–1910: a new vineyard takes shape, despite areas that are still very small.

Historical sources

Gilles Bernard, Le Cognac dans la tourmente du phylloxéra : 1868-1910, Groupe de Recherches et d’Études Historiques de la Charente Saintongeaise (GREH), Segonzac, December 2006.

Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac (BNIC), documentation on the grape varieties of Cognac and the history of the Charente vineyard.