This blog features news from the vineyard of Clifford P. Ambers in Amherst County, Virginia, called Chateau Z Vineyard (www.chateau-z.com). My main activites are growing hybrid grapes and working on an extension of T.V. Munson's "Foundations of American Grape Culture" that I call "The New Eastern Viticulture." This name harkens back to "The New Viticulture" of France during the phylloxera crisis in which hybrids were seen as one solution to the pest problem. I also see hybrids as a very important solution to growing grapes, but now with a focus on minimizing pesticides here in Eastern North America. Please bookmark my blog and website and follow along as we challenge "The Vinifera Paradigm" and return to breeding grapes from our native stocks to develop a viticulture properly suited to our climate and vineyard antagonists. Anyone who doubts this can be done because "vinifera wines are the best - by definition," needs to search out the best quality hybrid wines and serve them in blind tastings alongside similar style and age vinifera wines for comparison. I suspect that few American wine drinkers could discern the difference. Those with the wine drinking experience of Robert Parker need not follow along.