2022 Maréchal Foch - Signature

2022 MARÉCHAL FOCH - SIGNATURE

Tasting Notes:
The soft tannins and smooth mouthfeel of this French-American hybrid make it approachable and fun.  Tomato based dishes compliment the rich flavors of plum and black pepper. Lower acidity makes make it a nice match with rich pasta dishes and we love the deep earthy character with grilled or roasted meats. Maréchal Foch (MAHR-shahl FOHSH) is named after the WWI Field Marshal Ferdinand Foch. An easy way to remember how to pronounce it is that Maréchal sounds like marshal spoken with flair and Foch rhymes with brioche or gauche.

Winemaking Notes:
The fruit was gently de-stemmed by a Euro Select into 1.5-ton fermenters leaving a high whole berry content. After two days of cold soak and gentle pump-overs, inoculation was done with a variety of yeasts designed to increase complexity and mouth-feel. Fermentations were pumped over once a day with light punch downs as needed for nine to eleven days with temperatures peaking around 86°F. The wine was racked via gravity to settling tanks keeping the lots separate. The skins were shoveled into the press and pressed creating a ‘press’ settling tank. Three days later the wine was racked to barrel and inoculated for malo-lactic. After 10 months in American oak barrels the wines were racked to tank for blending. The wine was cold stabilized, filtered and bottled in September 2023.

Harvest Notes:
The 2022 growing season started early when a warmish March had us envisioning an early bud break and subsequent harvest.  Then April came and the Willamette Valley was hit by a hard freeze event that threw everything in disarray.  Not every vineyard was affected equally by the freeze with damage ranging from total losses to spotty losses, to no loss at all and, because of the timing, some couldn’t tell if they had been damaged until weeks later.  Our estate Dunn Forest vineyard fell into the latter category and in the end, we were hit hard but it was not a total loss, we still had some fruit.  Summer came in cool and wet and by July the grapes were clean and healthy but weeks behind schedule.  Fortunately, a nice warm August and September, followed by a beautiful October helped the fruit turn the corner just in time for a hurried harvest when the rains began.   

Our estate vineyard, Dunn Forest, is LIVE certified sustainable and Salmon Safe. The vineyard is hand cultivated allowing us to respond to individual vine needs.