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Ooh La La! Ce N’est Pas Vitis Vinifera.
C’est un Raisin Uni de l'Amérique.
C’est Marechal Foch.
We’ll get into the life of the good General below, but for now, let’s talk a little about the grape. As we just mentioned, Foch was originally created in the Alsace region of France, but found its niche in the Loire valley, where is was widely grown for some time until it fell out of favor and was replaced by more lucrative varietals. However, because Marechal Foch is an early-ripening grape that has good winter sustainability and is strongly resistant to disease (it was created in the first place to help combat phylloxera in France), it became a favorite grape to plant here in North America, particularly in colder, more northerly regions where traditional Vitis Vinifera vines could not stand up to the high levels of snow and cold during the winter.
Marechal Foch grapes are typically small in nature (which makes them favorites of birds – the one blight Marechal Foch could not be bio-engineered to resist) and produce wines that are high in acid content and low in tannins. This makes the grape incredibly versatile when it comes to producing different styles of wine, whether lighter reds similar in nature of Beaujolais; deeper, inkier reds with more depth, complexity, and the ability to age; or thick,sticky ports. The quality of Marechal Foch wines also depends on the age of its vines: the older the vines, the better the quality of wine. That’s why in parts of Canada, where the vines have only been planted in the last 50 years or less, Marechal Foch is produced into jug wines that are sometimes artificially sweetened, while in sections of New York, Oregon, and Washington – where the vines have been in the ground a lot longer – produces richer, more complex quality wines suitable for cellaring.
But in spite of all of that, Marechal Foch is a grape you should know about. It’s red, robust, versatile, and some of the wines the grape produces are sheer dynamite. Plus, with its higher acidic content, these wines are very food-friendly. And they’re named after a French general with a super cool mustache. I mean, how cool is that?
So don’t be afraid when you hear the words “American grape.” If you’re a fan of reds, Marechal Foch is the perfect entry into the realm of the United Grapes of America
for you. Don’t be afraid to pop the cork on one and give it a shot. You’ll be
doing you and your country proud.
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What It Looks Like, What It Smells Like, and What It Tastes Like
Marechal Foch looks like:
Marechal Foch smells like:
Marechal Foch tastes like:
Dark, rich and rugged aromas are the name of the game with Marechal Foch. The first thing that will hit you is a strong gamey character to the wine, similar to what you might find in a Gamay, Grenache Noir, or a Mourvedre. Beyond the gaminess, there’s going to be a cornucopia of darker fruits with a lot of brambly aromas as well – things like black plums, fresh blackberries still on the bush, black cherries, etc. Depending on the producer and where the wine is from, there might be other dark scents on the wine, such as bitter chocolate, coffee, or some toasted notes from the oaking of the wine. But the gaminess and the dark fruits are the tell-tale signs of a Marechal Foch.
One of the best descriptions I’ve heard for the flavor of a Marechal Foch wine is “spicy cherry.” Now I don’t know that I’ve ever had a spicy cherry in my life, but if such a thing were to exist, you’d find that it tasted just like a Marechal Foch. Also, as mentioned above, Marechal Foch’s are very acidic wines with hardly any tannins to balance them out, so you’re going to taste a lot of sour-style flavors and get a sharp bite to the wine. Flavors like rhubarb and something close to the artificial grape flavoring they use for Laffy Taffy and Bubble Yum bubble gum should be found in the wine as well. If you’re looking to awaken the 12 year-old inside of you, you’ve definitely come to the right wine!
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• As we mentioned above, the Marechal Foch grape was named after General Ferdinand Foch, a French military leader and hero during World War I. Foch (1851-1929) was a general in the French army and was named a Marshal of France during World War I (a Marshal of France is not a rank but rather a miliary distinction granted to individuals –mostly generals – who show exceptional valor or leadership. Think of it like the Medal of Honor for Frenchmen). During the last year of World War I – 1918 – he was named Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces and after Germany was defeated, he assisted with the creation of the Treaty of Versailles. However, Foch himself was no fan of the Treaty, calling it “a capitulation” and saying prophetically as it was being signed, “This is not a peace. This is an armistice for 20 years.” He nailed that nearly to the year.
After World War I, Foch served as a Field Marshal for the British Army and advised the Polish government during the Polish-Bolshevki war of 1920. For his contributions to that conflict, he was named a Marshal of Poland in 1923. After his death in 1929, he was interred in Les Invalides in Paris (where Napoleon and other famous French military officers are buried) and an avenue in the city was named after him. Foch also has streets named for him in a divierse array of cities, including Lyon; Quito, Ecuador; Beirut; New Orleans; Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Singapore. There is even an entire town in South Africa named after him. And of course, the aforementioned grape we’re now talking about.
• We mentioned above that Marechal Foch fell out of favor in France and the Loire valley and found new life and appreciation in North America. Marechal Foch is grown around the Finger Lakes region of New York and can also be found in several of the more northern Midwestern states, including Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and even as far south as Missouri. It has also maintained a presence in the Pacific northwest, where it thrives in the colder climates of Oregon and Washington, particularly the most eastern portions of Washington. And even though this is the United Grapes of America, we would be remiss to not point out that much Marechal Foch is grown in the main wine-producing areas of Canada, including British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley (which happens to sit
just north across the border of the eastern Washington appellations) and the Niagara Peninsula of southern Ontario (not too far away from the Finger Lakes region of New York).
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Fun Facts to Impress/Bore People At Parties
From Brein’s Brain to Your Plate
“I have to admit I wasn’t familiar with Marechal Foch before you brought it to me, as I don’t really drink a lot of American grapes, or native American grapes, or whatever you want to call them. But after trying a few of these Fochs, I can see how they’ll be a good food-friendly wine. Lots of acid on these, not a lot of tannin, and some good dark fruit flavors. But I’m thinking there’s some other strange food combinations you can put with these wines. For example, I think a classic Swedish meatball would go really well with a Marechal Foch – you just need to make sure you’ve got a nice blend of the grape jelly and the chili sauce that you dip the meatballs into. The fruit and spice will nicely mirror the spiciness and fruit in the wine, so that should go well together.”
“As for a main course, we’ll try something a little more traditional with a Marechal Foch. How about some wild mushroom pasta with a mushroom cream sauce. That may sound like a lot of mushrooms, but you sauté them down and add equal portions to the sauce and then on top of the pasta, and that would rock. Make sure you’ve got lots of fresh thyme in with the sauce and on top of the pasta, and try a thicker pasta like pappardelle and that will really be killer. The creamy earthiness of the dish will be cut through nicely by the fruit and acidity in the wine.”
“Finally, since it’s Halloween time, I’ve got a pairing that’s totally going to work for the season but will completely blow your mind: Red Vines. Some good, sticky red licorice. If you’re like me, you like to let your Vines sit out for a while, so that they get slightly hard and nice and chewy instead of super soft like they are right out of the pack. But think about the mellow sweetness and the artificial cherry flavors and how well those will pair with the darker, sharper fruit flavors in the wine. Amazingly, I don’t think a Marechal Foch would overpower the Red Vines; I think they’d only enhance them. So if you’re
heading to the movies and want to sneak a bottle of wine in
with you, consider making it a Marechal Foch if you’re going to
be having Red Vines.”
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Chef Brein Clements is the chef/owner of Restaurant Omakase in Riverside, CA, which
is quickly becoming SoCal’s answer to El Bulli. Minus the molecular gastronomy. He
began his cooking career at Domaine Chandon in the Napa Valley and moved on to become
Chef de Cuisine at the famed Balboa Bay Club before opening his own restaurant. Plus
he’s only 28. My man knows his wine and he knows his food. Each week he’ll provide
ingredient and dish recommendations that match up well with the week’s forgotten
grape. You should heed what he says. No, seriously, heed it.
2005 Lakeshore Winery Finger Lakes Marechal Foch
You may remember the Cab Franc we tasted from our good friend Annie Bachman’s Lakeshore
Winery. Well, as good as her Cab Franc was, we enjoyed her Marechal Foch even more.
There’s a very distinct scent and flavor that comes with Lakeshore wines (and, we
suspect, red wines from the Finger Lakes region) and this Marechal Foch definitely
has it. It’s got a nice acidity to it, and a strong musky nose with hints of iron
in it. Flavorwise, this was a very dry, tart wine, with lots of rhubarb and pomegranate
flavors to it. A hint of greenness was alos present, as was the slight banana flavor
that comes from malolactic acid hanging around, but it’s a terrific, full-bodied,
robust red wine and would really work well with game and roasted meats. Pick your
bottle up from Lakeshore Winery directly by filling out their online form here, and
be sure to let them know that Forgotten Grapes sent you!
2004 China Bend Vineyards Reserve Washington State Organic Marechal Foch
We stumbled upon China Bend Vineyards online and became so intrigued by them and
their approach to wines that we had to try out their Marechal Foch wines. China Bend
is located in the Columbia River valley along Lake Roosevelt in northeast Washington
(just south of Canada’s Okanagan valley) and is dedicated to producing only 100%
organic and fully sustainable wines. They add no additional sulfites to the wine
– the only sulfites in the wine are those that occur naturally in the grapes – and
they make some pretty wicked food products as well, including salsa, dill pickles,
and fruit jams. Their Marechal Foch is truly a unique wine, as they say “rich, full-bodied,
and silky smooth.” The wine had an earthy, brambly nose to it, with herbaceous notes,
and the taste itself was spicy, with plums, cherries, and pomegranates along with
some earthy flavors that a few of our tasting squadron members thought tasted like
ground-up licorice root. A truly delicious wine that’s going to hold up well with
lots of different foods, you can find out more about it on China Bend’s website or
give them a call at (800) 700-6123 to order.
Our Friend of the Forgotten Grapes Tasting Squadron tastes all of the wines you see
here ahead of time to ensure that you aren’t getting anything rotten or clunky. We
also try to ensure that most of the wines highlighted here are affordably priced
($20 or less) so you can try them out for yourself without having to take out a second
mortgage or sacrificing your kid (or future kid’s) college fund to do so. Lastly,
the Friends of the Forgotten Grapes has relationships with all the fine wine purveyors
we link to in this section. We know them, we trust them. You can order these wines
from them online right now and be trying them out in the next couple of days. Do
yourself a favor and order from them by using the links below. It’s totally worth
it. And tell them that ForgottenGrapes.com sent you, too.
Marechal Foch vines produces small grapes with thick, deep purple skins, so it would come naturally that Marcheal Foch wines are super dark and super thick, almost inky in their color. Now, the wines can be produced in a lighter style, similar to a Beaujolais where the fermenting juice spends very little time macerating on its skins and seeds, but most Marechal Fochs, particularly those from Oregon, Washington, and New York, are allowed to spend quite a bit of times sitting and soaking up the colors and tannins from the skins and seeds (though the grapes naturally produce very little tannins) and are super dark red in color.
2005 China Bend Vineyards Proprietor’s Reserve Washington State Organic Marechal
Foch
We found China Bend’s Foch so nice, we had to taste it twice. Fortunately, China
Bend’s owner and winemaker Bart Alexander sent along a bottle of their brand-new
vintage of Foch, but this time it was the Proprietor’s Reserve, which he makes from
only the best grapes on the vine. And the ‘05 Proprietor’s was no disappointment.
Its nose was more complex that the 2004 Reserve with more cherry, sour cherry, and
black currant scents to it. The wines itself was rounder and had more body to it,
with a long aftertaste that had just a hint of Coca-cola on it at the end. Lots of
dark sour cherries and black currants on this wine, which was incredibly rich and
decadent. It’s a wine that can be aged and will only get better the longer it sits,
probably for another five or six years. Again, check out the China Bend website to
find out more, or better yet, visit China Bend yourself if you’re up in Washington
and tell Bart we say hello. Or, you can call him directly at (800) 700-6321 and order
the wine directly to your home.
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Go On. Try It. You’ll Like It. 
Quick confession time: our first United Grape of America isn’t actually an American grape. Instead, this red grape is actually a hybrid, and it’s parentage is somewhat of a mystery. Some argue that Marechal Foch (MAR-eh-shawl FAWSH) is a cross between a Vitis Vinifera grape (the traditional grapes of winemaking) called Goldriesling (which itself is a hybrid) and the native American Vitis riparia grape, also known as the “frost grape”; others are less sure of that parentage, as they that the Foch (as it is sometimes called) must be a descendent of the grape Oberlin 565.
Whatever you might believe about the origin of the grape, there are two facts that are undeniable: that this hybrid was created in the Alsatian region of France by noted grape scientist and serial hybridizer Eugene Kuhlmann, and that is was named after this dapper man on the right, French World War I hero General Ferdinand Foch. Check out that mustache; I know it was probably the style at the time, but come on, that thing’s sweet.
