Marechal Foch
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Marechal Foch (pronounced "mar-esh-shall-fosh"), is an inter-specific red wine grape variety. It was named after the French marshal Ferdinand Foch (1851-1929), who played an important role in the negotiation of the armistice terms during the closing of the First World War. It was developed in Alsace, France by grape hybridizer Eugene Kuhlmann. Some believe it to be a cross of Goldriesling (itself an intra-specific cross of Riesling and Courtiller Musque) with a Vitis riparia - Vitis rupestris cross. Others contend that its pedigree is uncertain and may contain the grape variety Oberlin 595. It ripens early, is cold-hardy, is resistant to fungal diseases, but because of its small berry size is prone to bird injury. The quality of wine produced by Marechal Foch vines is highly dependant upon vine age, and the "foxy" character associated with new-world hybrid varietals is much reduced in examples made with fruit picked from older vines.
Marechal Foch is used to make a variety of styles of wine, ranging from a light red wine similar to Beaujolais, to more extracted wines with intense dark "inky" purple colour and unique varietal character, to sweet, fortified, port-style wines. Wines made from Marechal Foch tend to have strong acidity, aromas of black fruits and, in some cases, toasted wheat, mocha, fresh coffee, bitter chocolate, vanilla bean, and musk. In the darker variants of the wine a strong gamey nose is also often described.
Marechal Foch was formerly commonly grown in the Loire, but today it is limited to a small number of hectares in Europe. Because it is a hybrid variety, cultivation for commercial wines in Europe is restricted by European Union regulation. It is more extensively grown in both the eastern wine growing regions of the United States and Canada as well as Canada's Okanagan Valley. Marechal Foch, along with a series of other French hybrids, was introduced to Canadian vineyards in 1946 by Adhemar de Chaunac of Brights' wines.[1]
The acreage in Canada, however is much reduced from previous plantings due to an extensive vine-pull program in the early 1980s designed to replace Foch and other hybrids with Vitis Vinifera varietals. Tragically, much of the remaining old vines Marechal Foch currently planted are used to make inexpensive, and often artificially sweetened "jug wines".
Highly extracted, and more carefully produced wines made from older plantings of Marechal Foch have recently been successfully marketed as more expensive niche cult wines with a dedicated following. Examples include Malivoire Wine Company's (Beamsville Bench, Ontario) and Quails' Gate Estate Winery's (Okanagan, B.C.) "Old Vines Foch" wines. Marechal Foch is also popular with organic growers (such as China Bend Winery) because of disease resistances due to its hybrid parentage.
The grape varieties Léon Millot, Lucie Kuhlman, and Marechal Foch came out of the same crossing, and are therefore related.
Synonym: Foch, Kuhlmann 188.2, Marschall Foch
