# Marquette in Zone 5a vs Foch or Oberlin Noir



## spaniel (Nov 11, 2012)

Right now I have 20 Marachel Foch and 18 Oberlin Noir. The Foch have not been quite as hardy as I was hoping; I don't totally blame them as we've had 3 drought years, but this year they were apparently weak enough that I lost 5 down to the root from a late frost (previously they had wintered very cold temps just fine so I think it was the drought stress).

The Oberlin Noir are extremely vigorous, but not enough crop to know how the wine will be yet.

As I'm not yet getting the volume of red wine I want per year, I've decided to put in another 20 vines. I have the option of adding more of the same varieties I already have, or adding a third. I am considering Marquette. It is more than hardy enough for our weather here (west of Indianapolis), and I've read that it makes good wine. Any experience with Marquette? I know it was developed for more north of here but I am not familiar with any reason I should NOT grow it here.


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## ibglowin (Nov 11, 2012)

Quite a few of us are growing Marquette. Especially Rich "Grapeman". I can attest that it makes an EXCELLENT red wine. I can't think of any reason that you could not grow it in your Zone. My Marquette survived 3 days of -20F the very first Winter and are doing very well in my rocky volcanic soils.


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## spaniel (Nov 11, 2012)

ibglowin said:


> Quite a few of us are growing Marquette. Especially Rich "Grapeman". I can attest that it makes an EXCELLENT red wine. I can't think of any reason that you could not grow it in your Zone. My Marquette survived 3 days of -20F the very first Winter and are doing very well in my rocky volcanic soils.



Thanks for the feedback. If my Foch could survive the 3 days of about -20-25F we had when they were 2 years old, Marquette should have no issues!


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## grapeman (Nov 11, 2012)

Marquette is good and winter hardy and is a very vigorous variety. On top of that it can make an excellent wine. It has a small diameter trunk but don't let that fool you. In the Cornell Baker Farm Cold Hardy variety trial, it has performed circles around the Foch and many other varieties. I know a grower locally that has all of the varieties and he is expanding the Marquette the most. 

Marquette can crop heavier than most other varieties with the right care and training and still has great numbers. In my training system trial it yielded up to almost 10 tons per acre on one training system and that is in the fourth year. The wine from it is already very promising with great body and color even at only 2 months old.

Keep the weed competition down in the year or two of establishment and it can begin to bear in the third year a small to moderate crop (up to 25 pounds per vine here last year in the third year).


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## spaniel (Nov 11, 2012)

grapeman said:


> Marquette is good and winter hardy and is a very vigorous variety. On top of that it can make an excellent wine. It has a small diameter trunk but don't let that fool you. In the Cornell Baker Farm Cold Hardy variety trial, it has performed circles around the Foch and many other varieties. I know a grower locally that has all of the varieties and he is expanding the Marquette the most.
> 
> Marquette can crop heavier than most other varieties with the right care and training and still has great numbers. In my training system trial it yielded up to almost 10 tons per acre on one training system and that is in the fourth year. The wine from it is already very promising with great body and color even at only 2 months old.
> 
> Keep the weed competition down in the year or two of establishment and it can begin to bear in the third year a small to moderate crop (up to 25 pounds per vine here last year in the third year).



Thanks. I did look at the trellis study you are doing as well, that is excellent information. I don't have the time or ambition right now for the mGDC, but I am transitioning all my vines to TWC and would be happy with the numbers you got on that system.


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## UBB (Nov 12, 2012)

I also have Marquette and they are in their 3rd year. We had a small crop this year (birds got them) but thus far they have weathered our ND winters very well. Putting in more this spring as a matter of fact.


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## K-9 (Dec 3, 2012)

I love my foch and love the wine too. unique. The marquette I like for wines or blends but do not get that much due to terrible black rot here. I put in about 43 more foch this year I am so impressed. I also do top wire cordon. the corot noir and marquette and vidal blanc are all lower wire cordon trained. corot noir also has bad BR but this year was able to get a couple to few gallons. also - had a small batch the first year of corot noir and love the cherry strawberry taste to it. a nice grape. But I have serious heat and humidity here - so that sucks.


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## GreginND (Dec 3, 2012)

I will be planting Marquette this spring. But I'm more excited about Petite Pearl for a cold-hardy red varietal. I'm going to put in 100 vines of that too if I can source them.


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## grapeman (Dec 3, 2012)

I bought 50 Petite Pearl 3 years ago and when they came, they were tiny in the little white plant bands. It has been a wasted 3 years as the vines have just now gotten large enough that I can plant in the vineyard next spring. Buy bare-root vines if you can source them.


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## GreginND (Dec 4, 2012)

Yes, petite pearl can be a little slow to get going. But it's worth it. My good friend here in Fargo has just made the first commercial petite pearl from three year old vines. It is amazing. It blows his Marquette out of the water. Nice structure, rich complex flavors. This is the best hybrid red wine I've tasted.


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## grapeman (Dec 4, 2012)

That sounds like Mn 1200 with lots of structure, mouthfeel and complexity.


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## GreginND (Dec 4, 2012)

Yes, I can see some of the characteristics of MN1200 in PP. But at least this year the PP was better. I think PP is a cross of MN1094 and St. Croix?

I got my hands on 55 pounds of MN1200 this year. It had good sugar (26.5 brix) but the acid was too high (TA 8.7, pH 2.9). I didn't have a chance to adjust it before fermentation. I'm going to try to do some adjusting now with K bicarb to see if I can get it a little more palatable. We'll see. It does have really good complexity.


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## spaniel (Dec 4, 2012)

All great comments.

I'm about ready to pull the trigger on 30 Marquette vines. That would be a 50% increase to my vineyard! I am out of space in my current location...hemmed it in with my orchard, black raspberries and garden...so I marked out a new location on the property that is probably better ground, overall. I measured out how long a row I could fit there and came out with 30 vines so that is what I am going with!

Don't tell my wife, but there's room to stack about 50 more rows right next to it...


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## GreginND (Dec 5, 2012)

You can't go wrong with that. Good luck.


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## grapeman (Dec 5, 2012)

Greg did you take the post fermentation pH on the wine? If it rose to at least 3.1, I would just innoculate it with a good starter of MBR-31 or Bacchus mlb. That would get it where you want it. If it stayed under 3.0, then you would need to raise the pH a bit to get the malo going.


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## GreginND (Dec 5, 2012)

Thanks. Not yet but I plan to check it this weekend. I have a few other wines that also have low pH. I may adjust it slightly with some potassium bicarbonate and see if I can't get mlf going.


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## CCR (Jan 18, 2013)

We planted 50 Marquette's and this will be their 3rd year, so hopefully will get some good grapes here in Mich! Unfortunately 30% did not make it thru summer of 2012 even with manual watering, so will have some 1st years again.


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## spaniel (Jan 19, 2013)

CCR said:


> We planted 50 Marquette's and this will be their 3rd year, so hopefully will get some good grapes here in Mich! Unfortunately 30% did not make it thru summer of 2012 even with manual watering, so will have some 1st years again.



2012 was tough. I only got a crop off mine by flooding them every other week, and I still lost 6 out of 58 vines.


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