AXR1, a rootstock developed in France in 1879 designed to be both easy to graft, vigorous enough to yield well, and lime-, drought- and phylloxera-tolerant. AXR1 was a hybrid comprising the phylloxera resistant V. rupestris and V. vinifera cultivar Aramon. The latter’s lack phylloxera resistance was soon apparent to growers in both France and South Africa but was ignored by growers in California, where in the mid-1970s the University of California at Davis said AXR1 would boost in yields of Cabernet Sauvignon. The result was a costly replanting program there from the late 1980s onwards when AXR1-grafted vines began succumbing to a supposed new biotype of phylloxera (Dr Richard Smart, 2006). AXR1 is called ARG1 in France, the G referring to the nurseryman Ganzin who created it.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dr Richard Smart in the Oxford Companion to Wine 3rd edition ed. Jancis Robinson MW (Oxford University Press, 2006), p592.