22 JANUARY 15, 2016 Good Fruit Grower www.goodfruit.com
He described it as a medium-bodied but full wine with
a beginning, middle and end. "I really like it."
In 2015, his half-acre yielded a harvest of about 2 tons,
and he expects custom winemaker Charlie Hoppes from
Fidelitas Wines to produce about 120 cases of wine from
that crop.
Champoux decided to add the grape to the nine vari-
eties already planted there, based on several things, not
the least of which was the name.
"I went to Marquette High School in Yakima,
Washington, so I thought, 'Wow, I've got to have some
of that!'" he said.
He also liked the grape's reported cold hardiness,
especially since he lost about 60 of his 190 cultivated acres
to a severe cold snap in 2010. He said the Washington
wine industry can average a major freeze about every
fifth year, so he thought Marquette made sense.
Marquette could well be a good grape for Washington,
agreed Dr. Thomas Henick-Kling, director of the viti-
culture and enology program at Washington State
"This is going to bring light
to Marquette and whether it
has a place here in Washington
in specific sites. I think there's
a spot for it."
—Paul Champoux
