[blanknoone]

People have been trying to hybridize the European Grapes flavor onto American grape characteristics for more than 100 years. It has not yet yielded a vine that can really compete toe to toe in the wine world.

If this works, it will genetic engineering, not hybridizing that does it.

[Caipirabob]

If this works, it will genetic engineering, not hybridizing that does it.

This should be interesting. After it happens, then watch the French complain about "Franken-wine"...

[Truth666]

-- October 2002 Where did this new army come from?
Most believe the glassy-winged sharpshooter was accidentally introduced to Southern California as eggs on nursery stock. It was first noted in Ventura County in 1990. The growing region of Temecula, in northern San Diego county, noticed a problem back in 1996. By 1997, the damage was spreading like wildfire, and by August of 2000, between $12 and $14 billion of Temecula grapevines had been wiped out.
The glassy-winged sharpshooter has also been spotted in Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Orange, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Kern and Tulare Counties, making its way into California's Central Valley. There is no reason to believe it won't eventually start showing up in the more vineyard-laden Northern California counties of Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino.
http://www.goosecross.com/corner/sharpshooter.html

[xzins]

This will surprise some, but I like the American grapes better with one exception.

The Niagara, Catawba, and Concord yield the most fruity, distinctly mild flavors of any grapes that I know with the exception of the German "Bacchus" grape. (It is definitely one of my favorites, but it is extremely difficult and expensive to find in wine shops in America.)

IMHO, the best American wines using American grapes are by Meier's and by Firelands.

Anyone who hasn't tried them really should. They are the return of the Great Lakes wine industry that was killed by Prohibition.