Leo Laliman

Who is Leo Laliman?

Leo Laliman was a winegrower and viticulturist from Bordeaux, France. He, along with fellow winegrower Gaston Bazille, is largely accredited for the discovery that when European vines are grafted with suitable American rootstock, they become resistant to grape phylloxera. This discovery was very relevant at the time, when France was suffering from a severe wine blight induced by the same phylloxera.

While Laliman was praised for his discovery, he was also a controversial figure at the time; for undocumented reasons, he was also branded by many as the introducer of the phylloxera, and, by extension, the crippling blight that came with it.