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Marketta Fourmeaux
Winemaker/Owner
Chateau Potelle Winery
As an official wine taster for Institut National des Appellations d’Origine in France, Chateau Potelle winemaker, Marketta Fourmeaux, first came to the United States on official business to study California winemaking and viticulture. Sixth months and 2,000 wines later, she and husband Jean-Noel and their two small children made the move California to start a new life as winery owners.
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In 1988 the couple bought 273 acres on Mount Veeder and moved to the estate. Both Marketta
and Jean-Noel believe that mountain vineyards have it over flat land vineyards. “The well drained,
stony soils produce small berries with intense concentrations of color, tannin and flavor”, says
Marketta. “On Mount Veeder our higher altitudes produce ideal climate for red wines and fine
Chardonnay. The property goes to 2,000 feet. You can grow wonderful Zinfandel at 2,000 feet”,
she adds. Here the vineyards are above the fog and rainfall is abundant, averaging nearly 50
inches per year. Summers are cooler and the winters warmer, leading to longer growing seasons.
This creates a greater depth of flavor.
Marketta believes in building each wine by hand with a minimum of technical intervention. She
racks only by gravity and avoids using filtration, so that the wines retain all the natural intensity
and texture. Vineyards are naturally farmed and hand harvested, block by block. Grapes ferment
naturally with wild yeast, preserving the integrity of each individual block’s personality. Gentle
handling in the cellar helps to assure balance and finesse in the wine.
In addition to winemaking, Marketta oversees vineyard management at Chateau Potelle. Marketta
is a native of Finland and moved to France at a young age, where she lived in Paris and gained
wine experience in Bordeaux. She holds an Enology degree from France and a M.B.A.
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