THE PHYLLOXERA OUTBREAK
70,000 hectares of grapevines. Wine was exported, second only to wheat and cheese. Those are some of the XIXth century figures.
This situation collapsed at the end of the century, mainly because of the phylloxera outbreak.
Phylloxera, a vine-parasite insect, appeared for the first time in the Sorso Plain. More than 42,000 hectares of vineyards were destroyed in Sardinia from 1883 to 1912.
The reconstruction, which was long and difficult, took place thanks to the Itinerant Chair of Agriculture (Cattedre Ambulanti di Agricoltura) and the Anti-phylloxera Co-operative (Consorzio Antifillosserico): they introduced a technique consisting in grafting Sardinian species of vines on American vines (vine shoots), which were phylloxera-resistant.