market up for Rioja bodegas, which had been only slightly affected. The completion of a railway system linking Logroño to Bilbao, Madrid and Irun coincided with the onset of the phylloxera epidemic in Europe. The French were the first and hardest hit by the louse, which created an immediate and insatiable demand for all the wine the Rioja could produce. Amidst devastation in the French wine industry, dozens of négociant and French winemakers, mostly from Bordeaux, traveled to the Rioja to set up wineries, where they could continue to produce wine – bringing with them extensive knowledge, techniques and experience. This ushered in a period of unprecedented growth and prosperity for the Rioja wine industry. The subsequent boom in the Rioja wine industry lasted until phylloxera finally reached the region itself in the 1890s. By then the cure of grafting American rootstock had been successfully employed in France and it was only a matter of time before the Spanish were able to replant their own vineyards with the new grafted vines. In the meantime, regional authorities stepped in to sharply curb all wine imports, so that the local wine supply would take priority. Laws were passed prohibiting the export of wines from any bodega producing less 750,000 liters of wine per annum. Modern times At the turn of the 20th century, Rioja had established itself as the most recognizable name for Spanish wine outside of Spain. However the effects of World War I, the Spanish Civil War and World War II created trying times for the Rioja industry. Country-wide hunger resulted in government decrees stating that vineyards had to be torn up and replanted with wheat in order to feed the populace. It wasn't till the 1960s that many of these lands would be planted with vines once again. The 1970 vintage was a turning point for the Rioja wine industry, widely hailed as the "vintage of the century" and ranked by wine critics as one of the best of any region in the world. This success caused a surge in consumer interest in the wines, and with that an influx of foreign investment in the vineyards and bodegas of the Rioja. In the 1980s, a steady stream of under-performing vintages and excessively high prices caused a significant drop in sales, while other Spanish wine regions like the Ribera del Duero began to emerge, capturing more international attention and sales.