Grow Your Own Fresh Fruit! Hybrid Wine Variety

‘Marechal Foch’ is a very early ripening black grape with small berries. Vines are hardy with medium vigor and production. It is cold-hardy and resistant to fungal diseases. ‘Marechal Foch’ can be made into a variety of wines ranging from a light red wine similar to Beaujolais to a more extracted wine with intense dark purple color, black fruit flavor, and a unique varietal character, to a sweet, fortified, port-style wine. It is more extensively grown in North America where it ripens fully by the end of September.

‘Marechal Foch’ is an inter-specific hybrid French red wine grape variety. It was named after the French marshal Ferdinand Foch, 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 with a Vitis riparia – Vitis rupestris cross. Others contend that its pedigree is uncertain and may contain the grape variety Oberlin 595. The quality of wine produced by Marechal Foch vines is highly dependent upon vine age, and the flavor profile associated with many new-world hybrid varietals is much reduced in examples made with fruit picked from older vines.