Bazille Gaston

The French stockbroker Gaston Bazille (1819-1894) from Montpellier was also the owner of large vineyards. At the local university he met Jules Emile Planchon (1823-1888), a professor of botany. The two of them, together with the horticulturist Félix Sahut, were commissioned in 1868 to investigate the cause of the mysterious vine death. The group began their investigations at the Château de Lagoy vineyard near St. Rémy. Within just two days, they succeeded in identifying phylloxera as the cause. Planchon aptly named it Phylloxera vastatrix, which means "devastating louse". At that time, however, it was still completely unclear that the pest had been introduced from North America in the last 10 to 15 years with plant material contaminated with it.

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Bazille Gaston

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