Black Dog Vineyard

Marechal Foch

Marechal Foch is an inter-specific hybrid French 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. It ripens early, and it is cold-hardy and resistant to fungal diseases. The berry size is small, which makes it prone to bird injury.

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 North America, including southern Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia, as well as the eastern wine growing regions of the United States, where it ripens fully by the end of September. Our southern location here in Vigo County Indiana moves the ripening timetable up to late August.

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 color and unique varietal character, and even sweet, fortified, Port-like 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. Highly extracted, and more carefully produced wines made from older plantings of Marechal Foch have recently been successfully marketed as more expensive niche wines with a dedicated following.

Traminette

Traminette is a cross of the French American hybrid Joannes Seyve 23.416 and the German Vitis vinifera cultivar Gewürztraminer made by Herb C. Barrett ca. 1965 at the University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign. His intention was to produce a large clustered table grape with the flavor of Gewürztraminer. He sent the cross to the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station grape breeding program at Cornell for development when he departed from Illinois. Traminette was found to have excellent wine quality, combined with good productivity, partial resistance to several fungal diseases, and cold hardiness superior to its acclaimed parent, Gewürztraminer, while retaining a similar character.

Traminette produces solid yields, ranging in studies from 12-22 lbs/vine average.

Traminette wine has been chosen by the Indiana Wine Grape Council as the signature wine of the state. The wine is also grown in some regions of Ohio.