Wines by modern Prometheus?

I recently read an article entitled 'Frankenstein wine' warning over French supergrapes.

Apparently, French wine scientists have developed some vines that are impervious to fungal attack, specifically downy mildew and powdery mildew, and therefore requiring little or no fungicidal chemicals.  You'd think that this was a good thing and would be welcomed.  But no, some people, who may have a vested interest in turning back innovation, are claiming that the "lab-grown creations" combine genes from around the world and could lead to dumbed-down, low-grade "Frankenstein wine", whatever the hell that means.  The implication is that the new varieties are somehow unnatural.  As far as I can tell, genetic engineering has not been involved; conventional cross breeding has been used.

Let's just step back from this hysterical attack on scientific improvement in winemaking.  As a result of claimed cancer links among grape growers, the French are under intense pressure to reduce the amount of fungicides used.  The use of these new varieties would therefore seem to be a good move.  However, a winemaker and researcher from western France has claimed that these vines, which are  hybrids, would lead to "artificial and unnatural 'Frankenstein wine'."  According to the article, he likened the development of the new vines to crossing a monkey with a man - technically feasible but going against nature. That is a completely over-the-top reaction, but I'd be keen to see the resulting animal!

The development and growing of hybrid grape varieties has in fact been going on since the 1950s in the northeast and Pacific Northwest of North America.  Those varieties have enabled production of wines in these short season, cooler and more humid areas.  They also have greater resistance to disease and therefore require less use of chemicals.

Though rare, natural interspecific hybrids do occur as a result of cross-pollination, the earliest known was discovered in 1740 near a vineyard planted in Vitis vinifera.