The Concise Guide to Wine and Blind Tasting, second edition

Even music can alter our perception of wine. According to research from the Crossmodal Research Laboratory at the University of Oxford, people associate higher notes, flutes, and tinkling piano with sweetness; and deeper, more resonant notes with bitterness.

Before phylloxera, the vineyards of Europe had been battling with powdery mildew or oidium (Uncinula necator), a fungal disease that, like phylloxera, had come from America. Unlike most fungi, oidium prefers dry conditions. The first symptoms of infection are whitish powdery patches on the undersurfaces of basal leaves, but canes, flowers, and fruit can also be affected. Diseased berries fail to thrive and may split open. The original solution of spraying or dusting sulphur onto the vines is still practised, assisted by canopy management techniques that increase air and light penetration.

Today, phylloxera continues to pose a near universal threat, and almost all vinifera vines are grafted onto American rootstocks. Geographical isolation and strict quarantine measures have so far preserved South Australia and much of Chile and Argentina from the pest, but it can only be a matter of time before it rears its ugly head.