He especially loved wines that predated the phylloxera epidemic of the late nineteenth century, when a grape-vine pest decimated Europe's vineyards, forcing growers to replant with phylloxera-resistant rootstocks from North America.
That story in brief: In the late 19th century, a vine-sapping pest devoured muchof Europe's grapevines.
He's big on permaculture too and, during a foray into cheesemaking, sprayed whey on the vines to control pests.
But there are an infinite number of pitfalls along the path from vine to wine: weather, pests, problems with fermentation, oxidation and so on.
And the closer you look, the more exotic the place gets: One of this wine country's most feared vineyard pests–snipping vine canes with a vicious, surgical-looking cut is the sulphur-crested cockatoo.
Flowerpot Brush: £16, labourandwait.co.uk A nifty and specially designed brush to clean out flowerpots before reusing them, ensuring perfect garden hygiene and a summer free from vine weevil and other transmittable pests.
Make sure they're ripe before you harvest them from the vine and watch out for pests as they can inhibit growth.
A master sommelier can tell you the wind patterns and chemical composition of the soil along the Rhine river, what sort of diseases and pests plague the vines in Rioja, Spain, and where to find the principal wineries in any growing region of Bulgaria.
Because they lay around the ground, melon vines are particularly susceptible to pests like insects, mites, and leaf miners.
