Armagnac before phylloxera

If today the surface area of vineyards dedicated to the production of Armagnac isn’t the greatest in France, in the 19^th century, the Armagnac vineyards reigned supremely over the country and the Gers eau-de-vie saw a boom that nothing seemed able to stop. That is except for phylloxera… So what were the Armagnac vineyards like before the havoc caused by this vine disease?

The second half of the 19^th century marked the arrival of a destructive vine aphid: phylloxera.  By transmitting a disease that bears the same name, it caused the death of a vine in less than 3 years. 

Moving very quickly, the phylloxera literally devastated the French vineyards and on a greater scale, the European vineyards too, forcing them to start again and even to reinvent themselves gradually …

Around 1872, the phylloxera attacked the vineyards used for the production of Cognac, which was the most fashionable eau-de-vie at that time.  Armagnac was spared the catastrophic phylloxera for a few more years and therefore in spite of the odds, noticed demand increasing and incredible growth. 

The demand was so high that the surface area planted to vines dedicated to the production of Armagnac reached its peak of more than 100 000 hectares. The devastation of phylloxera in Cognac, but also the introduction of bottling and the new rail links were also reasons that explain the high profitability of the Armagnac trade in the 19^th century.

However, it was only a few years later that phylloxera arrived in Armagnac too.  At the very end of the 19^th century, the elusive and insidious little aphid showed up with no mercy in the Gers vineyards. Gradually the vines were replanted but the scale of the vineyard would never be the same: today, out of the 100 000 pre-phylloxera hectares, only a quarter were replanted.  

In addition to the extent of the vineyards, it was the varieties that changed dramatically.  To replant the vineyards, several new varieties appeared.  In the first instance, this was the case for the Ugni Blanc, brought from the Cognac region. 

The most substantial change concerned the Folle Blanche that represented the basis of plantings in Armagnac and was the real trademark of the Gers eau-de-vie. Being far more fragile, this variety was more difficult to graft to a rootstock that was necessary as a preventative measure against the dangers of phylloxera.

To meet the needs of a variety that presented the same characteristics (lovely acidity, large yields), François Baco, a nurseryman by profession, developed a hybrid variety from the Folle.