(Wine Searcher) Bored with Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc? Discover some new grapes with Kathleen Willcox.

The heirloom tomato effect is at work in the wine world. Shortly after activist chefs and farmers popularized the notion that post-industrial agriculture had ravaged the land with chemicals, leaving depleted soil capable only of producing bland vegetables and fruits that tasted more like the factory floor they were packed in than the food they nominally were, a certain type of wine consumer began clamoring for heirloom-style wines.

But unlike carrots and tomatoes, which are either tasty or tasteless depending on how they're grown, the world of wine dragged centuries of culture, tradition and tinkering in its wake and the process of changing the market has been markedly slower.