Show Me Your French Wine

In the 1860′s and ’70′s, France was experiencing a huge bug infestion (phylloxera) that was ruining all the grape vines and had the vineyards on the brink of extinction.  Along comes Charles Riley, a Missouri entomologist (bug scientist… ewwww), who discovered that some native American grape rootstocks were immune to the little buggers.  Millions of Missouri grape vine cuttings were shipped to France and grafted onto French vines.  Voila!  Problem solved.  So chances are, when you drink a French wine, you can thank the good old U.S. of A, and our own Missouri.