diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/build_systems/cached_cmake.py b/lib/spack/spack/build_systems/cached_cmake.py
index c22068e5ca354b..273eb070b10637 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/build_systems/cached_cmake.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/build_systems/cached_cmake.py
@@ -192,7 +192,10 @@ def initconfig_mpi_entries(self):
 
         entries.append(cmake_cache_path("MPI_C_COMPILER", spec["mpi"].mpicc))
         entries.append(cmake_cache_path("MPI_CXX_COMPILER", spec["mpi"].mpicxx))
-        entries.append(cmake_cache_path("MPI_Fortran_COMPILER", spec["mpi"].mpifc))
+
+        # not all MPIs have Fortran wrappers
+        if hasattr(spec["mpi"], "mpifc"):
+            entries.append(cmake_cache_path("MPI_Fortran_COMPILER", spec["mpi"].mpifc))
 
         # Check for slurm
         using_slurm = False
diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/mpich/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/mpich/package.py
index f97ce4f545173f..a1816d401af7d1 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/mpich/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/mpich/package.py
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ class Mpich(AutotoolsPackage, CudaPackage, ROCmPackage):
 
     depends_on("c", type="build")  # generated
     depends_on("cxx", type="build")  # generated
-    depends_on("fortran", type="build")  # generated
+    depends_on("fortran", type="build", when="+fortran")
 
     variant("hwloc", default=True, description="Use external hwloc package")
     variant("hydra", default=True, description="Build the hydra process manager")