The word "root" has an important meaning in any language. It may mean the root of a plant, or that we are talking about the place where we're from. The roots of our families refers to our ancestors and where they have lived. But a place is more than its geography. The character of people is intrinsically linked to their home. It's part of who we are. Regardless of whether it's the traditions, culture, climate, food, sense of humor, the origin of our ancestors is something we can identify with. It's something that “grounds” us. So much so that when we return to the ancestral home, we say that we are “returning to our roots.” In viticulture, we already know that the American rootstock is what rescued European vineyards and eventually also the rest of the world from phylloxera (more info: Blog II ). Of those, the one that helped in large part to bring back the European vines was Vitis Berlandieri. Today I'd like to explore a little bit about where these rootstocks are from, to talk a little bit about their homeland and their “European botanical family” and why it's important for the wine we drink today.
According to geologists, more than 980 million years ago, before Pangea, the North American continent was under water. About 260 million years ago the sea was shallower with land protruding out around it, especially in the areas of northern Mexico, southern New Mexico and western Texas. It was an inland sea that eventually dried up. Where this is seen most clearly is in the Chihuahuan Desert, the largest on the North American continent. It extends to two countries and seven states. At elevations of more than a thousand meters above sea level you can see that the land is full of maritime fossils, lime, shale, sandstone and dolomite - minerals that are abundant on the sea floor. Millennia of volcanic activity, the formation of mountains and basins, continental drift and erosion gave us the area of this enormous desert surrounded by the Western and Eastern Sierra Madre in Mexico. The northwestern part of the desert includes the White Sands National Park in New Mexico, USA and the northeast borders the Savannah of the Edwards Plateau in Texas. Because they have all been under the sea for millions of years, they all have soils with a very high lime content. And although Vitis Berlandieri is found in all these areas, this last one, The Edwards Plateau, is the part of Texas with the highest concentration.
Vitis Berlandieri Grapes (Source: mexico.inaturalist.org)
Thomas Volney Munson lived in the 1870s a little north of the Edwards Plateau. He was originally from Illinois, but lived in Denison, Texas. He studied viticulture and was the specialist in viticultre in the country during the phylloxera years. He moved to Texas because he said it was “The Grapevine Paradise.” He was so fascinated with indigenous grapes that he traveled throughout The United States on horseback or by train, collecting samples of the wild vines along the way. He would disembark quickly at any station to collect grapes he hadn't previously seen and rush back with the samples before the train departed. He created a greenhouse for American grape varieties and experimented with local vines. Although none of the results were important for the market, his work studying grafts completely changed the world of wine. He knew that it was urgent for Europe to find roots more tolerant to calcareous soils because the other American roots, from other types of soils, did not work on all types of soils. Given the similarity in the soil of some parts of Europe and those of Texas and New Mexico, due to having been submerged under the sea eons ago, Thomas began to study how to graft the endangered vines onto Texan roots. When he was finally successful, he shared his findings with French experts for which he received the honor of Chevalier du Mérite in 1888, the second American to receive the status. The first was Thomas Edison. Thanks to Tomás Volney Munson, the vast majority of the European varieties that we continue to enjoy today survived.
Texas is the largest state in the United States and the fifth largest in wine production thanks to its indigenous roots. As we well know, Texas was part of Mexico until 1836 when it became independent, although Mexico never honored that independence. Later, in 1845 the United States annexed the territory of Texas. This was one of the reasons why Mexico and the United States went to war during the years of 1846 and 1848. At the end of that war, unfortunately Mexico lost almost half of its territory. However, the Mexican culture - its language, customs, and food, among other things, remain a large part of the culture of those regions of the USA. Do you know where I'm going with this? I met someone who once told me: “With enough 'ifs', you can fit Paris in a bottle.” "If I had folded it like this, and then like that, if the bottle had been bigger or if had a wide neck," etc. However, in some cases, it's only necessary to use the word once or twice...if the war between the United States and Mexico had never happened, then the root that rescued the world of wine in Europe would have been found on Mexican soil. Not much time passed between the end of the war and the beginning of American rootstock graftings and eventually to the Vitis Berlandieri discoveries. Therefore, today we can confidently say that Mexican-American rootstocks were one of the most important rootstocks to have rescued vineyards worldwide. If that doesn't motivate you to toast with a glass of wine, I don't know what will. Cheers! And ¡Qué Viva México!
