Concord grape alternative?

I live in upstate NY, a 5b zone, and plan to plant some grapes this year. They will be trained on a chain-link fence and will get full sun. This is wine country, so I know they will grow OK.

I have two questions: 1) Concord grapes are the order of the day around here, but I'm not real fond of them because of the tough skins... what are my alternatives?

and 2) How exactly does one go about procuring a grape vine? I don't recall ever seeing them for sale anywhere, though I haven't necessarily looked that carefully before either.

 

There are lots of varieties you can try.

http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/hort/faculty/reisch/bulletin/table/tableindex2.html

This a list os nurseries to help.

http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineguest/nurse.html

Hope this helps.

Cheers

 

Very helpful -- wonderful information, thank you!

 

I did not take the time to look at every nursery listed, but many of them being commerical grape nurseries, require an order miminum of 25 vines. - Millet (1,376-)