2007 Marechal Foch - Estate Bottled

Bronze Medal – 2010 Oregon Wine Competition

Bronze Medal – 2009 Oregon Wine Competition

Tasting Notes:
We just love making this French-American hybrid grape into wine. Amazing color, just right medium bodied tannins and a smooth mouth feel make this wine a delight. Layers of blackberry and cherry followed by a spicy finish make this wine easy to enjoy alone. It’s also great with roasts in the winter and rich pasta dishes in the summer.

Winemaker Notes:
Maréchal Foch (MAHR-shahl FOHSH) or just Foch, is one of two hybrid grapes we have planted at the estate, Dunn Forest Vineyard. (Muller Thurgau is the other.) An interesting grape as it runs counter intuitive in many of its characteristics. Both the vine and wine are very sensitive to sulfur, in fact you can kill the vines if you spray them with sulfur, but at the same time both are very resistant to disease. This is especially interesting to me in the winery. The pH of this wine is quite high which would normally be a breeding ground for problem bacteria because it is difficult to maintain the sulfite levels in high pH wines but nothing bad seems to grow in this wine and the sulfite levels maintain themselves quite well. The grape is also unique because the fruit actually has red pulp, most red grapes look like table grapes, red skins with white pulp, Foch however is red all the way through and as soon as you crush the berry the juice has amazing color. The higher pH also seems to make it a better food pairing for tomatoes and other higher acid foods. So keep it in mind next time you sit down to that dinner of classic marinara over spaghetti and find you are out of Chianti.