A young vine growing in the
schistous soils of Portugal's Douro. But the eagle eyed among the readers will
have spotted that this is not
a vine destined for making wine: its an American vine of the sort used for
rootstock. Where an old vine has been removed, sometimes
the rootstock survives to send up a shoot. Phylloxera
hit the Douro at the end of the 19th century, along with most of the rest of
the
wine growing world. As a consequence, all the vineyards are planted on resistant
American vine rootstock, with a few exceptions
(most notably Noval's Nacional vineyard).
(All photographs are ŠJamie Goode and must not be republished in any form without permission.)