When we look back, we see that England was the center of scientific research and discoveries in the world of the 1800s. The prosperous British Kingdom organized both commercial and scientific expeditions to all over the world. When we look at Darwin's journey aboard the Beagle, we see how the information obtained during these expeditions created great changes in the history of science.

But sometimes there are problems that these expeditions bring back with them. In the 1850s, there were intrusive pests on the grape seedlings brought to England from the American continent, which were increasingly settled. These intruders, which were later called 'grape phylloxera', first break the vineyards in England like cotton balls, then they can't get enough of their speed and move to the mainland and continue to their destructive journey in France.

The phylloxera epidemic, which started in the 1860s, destroyed 40% of the French vineyards by 1875. Once the source of the problem has been found, new generations of old world vines that were previously brought to America, this time immune to phylloxera, need to be brought back to Europe and planted. As you can see, the local grape vines of the American continent started the phylloxera disaster, and the vines that went to America provided their salvation.

After the phylloxera disaster, the change in viticulture was not limited to the fight against pests. The vineyards consisting of mixed vine species in France have turned into uniform vineyards, and the distances of the plants from each other in the planting of saplings are tied to new rules. However, these changes that took place at that time made some very serious long-term effects that some grape species were grown less and less, and created the opportunity for some grapes to dominate the wine production. Since the vineyards in some regions were not replanted after phylloxera, the total vineyard area shrank in area.

In the following years, phylloxera reached the lands we live in. Although the Ottoman administration did not accept its existence at first, it started to struggle with phylloxera in 1886, especially after it spread in the vineyards in the Aydın region. Later, five vine nurseries had been established in Istanbul and Izmir and resistant vines brought from America were planted in these nurseries and native breeds were vaccinated. Afterwards, healthy saplings were distributed free of charge to viticulturalists.

Among the wines we serve on the WAYANA Wine Menu today are perhaps the grapes of the descendants of the vines that were grafted in these nurseries at the time. We now know how to control phylloxera, but we don't yet know how to control climate change accelerated by our brutal use of our planet. Let's hope that we will be able to stop this process without incurring great losses.