 After the spectacular success of Missouri wines at the Vienna World Fair of 1851, taking 8 of the 12 medals on offer, the French responded by importing Norton / Cynthiana rootstocks from the US, and unwittingly introducing phylloxera, which then ravaged the vineyards of France, Spain, and Portugal during the 1870s.Jaeger, working with the Missouri state entomologist George Hussman, had already raised vines with resistance to the pest; he exported 17 boxcars of the resistant rootstock to France, which was to prove the salvation of the European wine industry..