In the 1880s, phylloxera, a pest native to North America, infested French vineyards, causing the loss of approximately 1.5 million hectares of vines and the collapse of the country's wine production. The decline of the French vineyard, however, led to a veritable boom in wine production in another country: Algeria.

Algeria had been conquered by France in 1830. Beginning in the 1870s, the crisis in the European countryside, particularly in the French vineyards, led numerous entrepreneurs to invest in the grape sector in Tunisia and, especially, Algeria. Within a few years, Algeria was thus "invaded" by French vineyards, which soon became the driving force of local agriculture. There were 15,000 hectares dedicated to vineyards in 1878, which had increased to 167,000 by 1903. By 1940, vineyards had occupied 400,000 hectares of Algerian soil (about 4,000 square kilometres, almost the size of Molise), producing a staggering 21.5 million hectoliters of wine annually. Huge business opportunities arose: for example, the wealthy Duroux family, following investments in the 1920s, had come to own over 1,000 hectares of vineyards in the country.

This sector was concentrated in the country's northern regions, which contained the most fertile and irrigable lands, and was almost entirely controlled by French settlers. By 1950, Europeans owned 90% of the land dedicated to vineyards, despite representing only 15% of the Algerian population. Vines were often a monoculture, crowding out wheat, cotton, sheep, and goats. They also contributed to water pollution, as waste and refuse from wineries flowed into rivers.

Some of the wine was destined for the domestic market, sold primarily in Algiers, the country's main consumer centre. Most was exported, particularly to France, which held a monopoly on Algerian trade. Wine was not only central to the agricultural sector but also affected other sectors of the economy, including transport logistics, distillery development, and scientific research. Algerian winemaking had become one of the most advanced in the world, thanks to the research and experimental techniques of the Institut Agricole d'Algérie.

Ironically, all this occurred in a Muslim country, where the majority of the population, for religious reasons, abstained from alcohol.