A few reasons for the Villards’ popularity were the varieties’ relative ease of cultivation, their resistance to downy mildew, and prolific yields. Plantings of the varieties increased for the devastation of the war years following World War I and World War II with the Villards hitting their peak in the French wine industry during the 1960s. By 1968, Villard noir was the fifth most widely black skin grape variety (behind such notable "Vitis vinifera" varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot) while Villard blanc was the third most planted white grape variety (behind Ugni blanc and Chardonnay). During these peak years there were more than 30,000 and 21,000 hectares of Villard noir and blanc, respectively, planted over a swatch of southern France that stretched from Bordeaux all the way to the northern Rhone. But this peak period was short lived as hybrid grape varieties became a source for scorn and blame from French authorities and growers of exclusively "vinifera" fruit for the wine lake phenomenon that troubled the European wine industry for much of the 20th century. For the rest of the century, both Villard varieties as well as several other hybrid grapes (like Baco noir, Chambourcin, Couderc and Plantet) were targeted by aggressive vine-pull schemes where growers were paid substantial amounts to uproot their vineyards and either replant with more "noble grapes" or different agriculture crops. These efforts were highly successful and by the end of the 1980s, the numbers for Villard noir had dropped to 2,500 hectares and for Villard blanc to 4,600 hectares. Further fueled by changes to French wine laws in the 1970s that prohibited the use of hybrid grapes in AOC wines and banned future plantings, both grapes were virtually eradicated from French vineyards by the turn of the 21st century. While the Villard grapes were once widely planted throughout southern France, particularly in the wine regions of the southwest, and could be found in Bordeaux as well the vineyards of the northern Rhône Valley, today it is virtually eradicated from France. The few exceptions are isolated old vine plantings in the departments of Ardèche and Tarn which survived the vine-pulling period of the late 20th century. Today, both Villard grapes can be found in limited plantings in various American wines regions including Missouri, Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, Virginia, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma.