Ep 607: Wine Legends - The People Who Solved the Great French Wine Blight
Wine for Normal People
Wine for Normal People
4.6 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 20 May 2026
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this show rather than one wine legend, I talk about a team of people who saved the wine world from The Great French Wine Blight of the 1860s – 1890s, which turned out to be caused a destructive, insect called phylloxera that came to Europe on American grapevines. I discuss the contributions of eight people who worked together and across continents to collectively save the European grapevine, Vitis vinifera, from extinction. Today, we drink Pinot Noir, Cabernet, Chardonnay, Riesling, and Syrah all because of the efforts of these people. This podcast is the story of what they did and how they did it.
I discuss the contributions of:
- Jules-Émile Planchon
- Gaston Bazille
- CV Riley
- Hermann Jaeger
- George Hussman
- TV Munson
- Leo Laliman
- Pierra Viala
All played key roles in identifying the cause of vine death in France, and finding the solutions that would work best.
This is an important story of wine legends all wine lovers should know about! Enjoy!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Wine for Normal People, the podcast for people who like wine, but not the snobbery that goes with it. |
| 0:15.7 | I'm your host Elizabeth Schneider, author of the Wine for Normal People book and certified wine dork. |
| 0:21.6 | A quick thanks to wine Access for supporting the podcast as our partnership comes to an end at the end of June. |
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| 0:42.3 | on your own all ship directly to your door. Go to wineaccess.com slash WFMP. That's wineaccess.com |
| 0:49.4 | slash WFNP. Now let's get to the show. I am back from Alto Adi J and Veneto, and it was just another |
| 0:58.1 | phenomenal trip, learning so much, seeing so many wonderful producers. This was a real |
| 1:05.0 | study in contrast. So we had some larger producers, some really tiny boutique producers. We went from Veneto, |
| 1:12.9 | which is very squarely Italian territory, up to Alto Adi J, where the main language is German. |
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| 1:35.4 | slash wine for normal people. These are people who are friends. Deep friendships form on these trips, |
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| 1:57.3 | year. So check it out today. In that vein, of course, I have to do shoutouts for the patrons |
| 2:02.3 | who have joined for a year. I really appreciate your support. Sarah, J.R., Garrett, J., Meredith E., Pat D., and |
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