2006 Scotch Block Winery Marechal Foch

12% alc./vol. Beautiful, saturated black-cherry/garnet colour; transparent but very dark. Lots of youthful carbonation along the sides of the glass. Intriguing, complex nose of oak and peppercorns and an undercurrent of wild cherry fruit - very true-to-type. Lots of pencil-shavings oak around the discreet dark fruit. Extremely well structured with a lot of oak on the entry and all across the palate; this actually adds to the structure of the wine. Lithe, with fine acid/tannin balance and moderate acidity; a pleasant astringency wraps up the finish and appears to be largely oak tannin that is already partly integrated at this young age.

Very much a food wine, this should integrate well over a day or two in the open bottle. In every way this is a successful and well-crafted red from what was a challenging ripening season - showing once more that Marechal Foch is able to produce exceptional table wines in our climate even in the weaker years. Scotch Block winery, in addition to producing a wide array of fruit wines, also sources hybrid grapes from its neighbouring Toccalino vineyard. The winery and vineyard are in Halton Hills just north of Milton, along the Niagara Escarpment, but completely outside the Niagara Peninsula wine growing region.