I know that the French wine industry was more or less saved by utilizing resistant American varietals in France. What affects did this have on French wine in terms of quality and taste? Did French snobbery play a role and was there any "resistance" to adopting American grapes? I'm writing a research paper on the topic so if anyone could recommend any books or other literature on the subject, that would be great.
For a quick intro, Hugh Johnson's World Atlas of Wine (2nd edition, 1977) has a few pages devoted to it in the preface.
Unlike most "blights" the pathogen in this case is the phylloxera insect that attacks the roots, but American vines are resistant.
American grapes are pretty much inedible. Do you know the flavor of Concord grape jelly? The Concord grape was formed by crossing native strains with European strains and the wild grape has an even stronger flavor.
The grapes grown today in Europe are not American grapes. They are the old grape varieties grafted onto American roots. I'm not sure what kind of resistance there could be if the choice is between grafted vines and no vines.
In the first half of the 20C there was lots of discussion about whether the wine was better before the blight or not.