Downright goofy. Anyway, I don't anything about how hardy wine grapes are or aren't--in terms of our clay/soil and the climate here. There's one winery in town and from what I hear they only grow a variety or two.
There are wineries in just about every state, it probably is every state now. Anyway, winegrapes come in three basic varieties:
- European, usually known by their scientific name,
vitis vinifera, or just vinifera for short. These include all the well-known varietals you'll see at a wine shop; chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, merlot, syrah/shiraz, zinfandel, riesling, etc., etc., etc.
- American, which include something like five species, I forget all of them. These aren't use as commonly for wine, but some better-known varietals are the scuppernongs and norton. These also include the well-known table grape varietals, like concord.
- European/American hybrids. These were mostly developed in Europe in the late 19th century, when the European grapes were being decimated by the imported American pest phylloxera. American grapes are immune, so hybrids were created. The problem was eventually solved with grafting European cultivars on American rootstock, and that is the standard practice worldwide except for I think Chile where phylloxera hasn't invaded yet. Check me on that though. Because the need for hybrids went away, they didn't catch on in Europe all that much; I think the Swiss still grow a little bit.
But they are much more popular in the Midwest and marginal locations in the East. Common varietals are chambourcin, seyval blanc, and traminette.
OK, most people when the think about growing wine think about soil, and that is important. But with different American rootstocks, you can find a grape that will grow in just about any soil, except perhaps the most miserable clays. Drainage is equally important; a slope is nice but drain tile works too.
No, the most important criterion is "will my grapes die in the winter"
Most vinifera can tolerate winter lows down to -6F, -10F for some of the German varieties. In some places, if there is a good, reliable snow cover, you can mound up the graft and one cordon (arm) and grow from that every year.
The hybrids are often good much colder than that, I forget exactly though since I didn't grow them and I wasn't in a cold climate. I know there is lots of them in places like MO, I never met any IL growers
The Americans can tolerate just about anything, but the wine is . . . rather different than what you'd be used to from the store.
The second problem is length of the frost-free growing season. If it's too short, your fruit will not get very ripe. That's OK for some white grapes; in fact in Ontario they do a lot of icewine, the natural way! And it's pretty good! Or you can just add some sugar in fermentation if you're going to be too low in final alcohol.
The cold-climate reds I've had . . . they tend to be very light, which is good as the tannins aren't very mature, and they are acidic. I suppose that's not any worse than the ridiculously overripened, overextracted reds that CA likes to put out these days--CA, where raisins and wine come off the same hopper!
This probably is applicable for you:
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/ho-221.pdf
Also check out the Cornell U. viticulture site, they are the leading research institute for viticulture in the East--also VA. Tech, but Cornell is much more concerned with cold-climate stuff.
last place we went was north carolina to play golf 
