1878

Port Vintage Report: Exceptional Vintage, very delicate. All companies declared production. Still very good in 1978, according to Ben Howkins. In July, according to Ernest Cockburn, news from the Douro was alarming, there being the anticipation of a late and very small vintage due to phylloxera. Unstable weather in July and August, but the harvests, begun in mid-September, took place in excellent weather. However, at Cima Corgo, very scarce pr...

Bordeaux: Harvest began September 19th. Very good quality wines. Often described as the last pre-Phylloxera vintage in the Médoc (although the first reported instance of a Phylloxera infection came in the southern Rhône in 1866 and this was also the first year that laws officially sanctioning grafting of vines onto American rootstock were passed in France, although not in Bordeaux for another three years). Ulysse Gayon was appointed professor of chemistry at the Faculté des Sciences in Bordeaux, where he would develop the Bordeaux mixture for treating down mildew.