Boxwood Winery

News from the winery and vineyard from Adam McTaggart

2012-02-07T07:32:00.001-05:00

Adam McTaggart, Boxwood's Winery's Wine-Maker and Vineyard Manager drops in this week to advise on the current status of the vines and the vintages in the Winery.

In the vineyard we are pruning the 'heads' of the vines, this is a pre-selection of the canes that will be used this year. At this time we select the two canes that will be used and keep 2 more as insurance, then clean the rest of the cuttings that we don't need. Once this is done we will trim and tie the canes we will keep. The final procedure once it warms up a bit more is to remove the insurance canes. All cuttings are sent off for composting.

In the winery I am fining the rose with bentonite to stabilize the proteins and I'm doing a light gelatin fining on the trellis. Once the Rose is protein stable, I will then cold stabilize it by chilling. The 2010 reds are ready to bottle.

-Adam McTaggart, Wine-Maker

We will be bottling the 2011 Rose this month and the 2010 red wines in March; Our Blending Meeting for the red wines is scheduled for March 1, 2012. Stay tuned to follow these Boxwood vintages into the bottle shortly.

2011: The Year at Boxwood

2012-01-31T17:27:00.002-05:00

For a moment before we move forward, I would like to revisit the year 2011 for all of its highlights; November 2010 was a great jumping-off point for the remarkable year ahead.

November, 2010: Boxwood's Stephane Derenoncourt is dubbed the World's Hottest Winemaker by Wine Spectator Magazine in Bordeaux's Favorite Rebel.

January, 2011: Boxwood is featured in Wine Enthusiast Magazine's Destination: Middleburg.

January, 2011: Boxwood is featured in the Washington Post piece Virginia Wines Meet Jean-Georges Approval.

January, 2011: Boxwood's owner, John Kent Cooke is a subject of the documentary series, The Virginians.

February, 2011: Boxwood earns a place on the wine list at Bar Boulud, London and is offered for sale at Whole Foods in the United Kingdom.

May, 2011: John Kent Cooke is spotlighted in Bisnow's From Redskins to Red Wine.

May, 2011: Boxwood Winery's Topiary 2007 is awarded a Silver Medal in the Decanter World Wine Awards.

June, 2011: Boxwood Winery's Executive Vice President, Rachel Martin, is selected to serve as a Board Member of the WineAmerica Board of Directors.

June, 2011: Boxwood Winery and Boxwood's Tasting Rooms are selected by Washingtonian Magazine's in the Best of Middleburg.

June, 2011: Boxwood's Topiary is featured in the Wine Segment on CNBC, 10 Best Wines You'veNever Heard of.

June, 2011: Boxwood is named one of Nine Must-See Wineries ofThe World by Celebrated Living Magazine.

July, 2011: MADE in America's American Treasure Award for sustainable agriculture on a national historic site is bestowed on Boxwood Winery.

August, 2011: Boxwood Winery is spotlighted by EntraArchitectural Magazine as an architectural marvel.

October, 2011: JohnKent Cooke confirms the expansion of Boxwood's vineyard, adding eight acres to the sixteen acres currently under vine; to include Syrah, a new varietal to Boxwood Estate Winery.

November, 2011: Boxwood is featured in Garden & Guns, Be Thankful for Southern Wines.

December, 2011: Boxwood pours at The Circle of Wine WritersChristmas Event, London.

December, 2011: Boxwood is selected as a must-visit winery by Wine Enthusiast Magazine in

The Top 10 Wine Travel Destinations for 2012.

A banner year. We are looking forward to sharing the events of 2012 with you.

Wine Enthusiast names Virginia (Boxwood et al) a best wine-travel destination for 2012

2012-01-05T09:00:00.021-05:00

Boxwood Winery is pleased to receive a must-visit acknowledgement from Wine Enthusiast Magazine as it selected the Top 10 Wine Travel Destinations for 2012.

"With its state-of-the-art, modern barrel room and gorgeous grounds, Boxwood is a must-visit. Run by the family of former Redskins owner John Kent Cooke, the 16-acre vineyard produces estate-bottled Bordeaux-style blends (renowned French winemaker Stephane Derenoncourt consults). Call ahead to schedule a tasting and tour."

- Alexis Korman for Wine Enthusiast

Tours and tastings at Boxwood, the finest of Virginia's award-winning wineries, can be arranged on our website. Visit us in 2012, we look forward to hosting you.

It was a very good year

2011-12-21T17:18:00.000-05:00

In the minds of some, there are a few indisputable facts about wine vintages; Argue about them to your peril. One of our favorites has to be: It rained that year, so the wines will be unfavorable.

Sweeping generalizations are dangerous and fool-hardy. Inevitably, the next wine in your glass will be the one that proves the generalization an unworthy use of oxygen.

I tasted several of those wines the other day. Our 2011's. Generalizing critics may consider themselves duly warned.

Boxwood is gifted with both resources and dogged work ethics but for all our commitment, channeling, and mental concentration we have not learned how to control the weather. If it could be done, you can believe Adam could figure it out - he is handy and determined. But he has no choice - as yet - but to work with weather-related circumstances.

2011 was a gorgeous warm season. In the home stretch as we headed into harvest, we faced rain in Northern Virginia. Rachel and Adam did not waste time in re-strategizing the harvest as the forecast loomed wet in the those last two weeks: More hands, moving faster. Agonizing sorting. Long, back-breaking days in the vineyard, then just as long on the press pad and in the Chai. It is not just a turn of phrase: Blood, sweat, tears, and money and no shortage of all of it brought in the 2011 vintage. As harvest progressed and Adam came to understand the nature of the vintage as it arrived in house, there was caffeine, dark circles under eyes, and nothing but deadly serious expressions.

In the meantime, the phones were buzzing; Writers looking for harvest reports. It had rained - and so that logic goes - the vintage is in trouble. But in grape-producing, sometimes it does rain. One can't be surprised: Rain should not stump you or cause you to be frozen in your circumstances. We worry about what we can control - and when it comes to those things, we are unrelenting task-masters and it is understood that we accept the expense and obligation of managing such a year. Do what you have to do, after all, to make fine wine.

No doubt, 2011 presented challenges. Good ones; the kind which, in years ahead, will define Boxwood's legacy as a great winery. By our definition, being a top winery is not just about making great wines; It is also about what we overcame to produce great wines.

Last week, the first post-fermentation 2011 vintage tasting convened upon Stephane Derenoncourt's arrival on Boxwood.

The 2011 Rose's were tasted first: Both the wine destined for the all-Malbec Rose, and those for the blend. Once we tasted, we were all nodding and smiling broadly. A few days later we would be thrilled when we received word the Rose was definitely going to be submitted for the Governor's Cup. The 2011 Rose's are beautiful, bright, and unforgettable. Just stunning.

Admittedly, the smiling might have been sweetened by all the ominous industry chatter about the 2011 year across the United States. It feels good to know you have overcome. And even better when you're confident you're on top. All that work - for a harvest which had the quality of a silent emergency - paid off.

We want to correct the impression that it was not a good year for wine. In fact, it was tiring and trying at times but if you are determined beautiful wines can be made, have been made.

2011 is just one of those years that makes a winery, a fine winery. A lot of people can make delicious wines while the sun shines. I am proud to write it of Adam's group that they made magnificent wine while it poured. Youth, pragmatism, and patience are those intangible things in our bottles which step to the fore in a year such as this.

We are the most critical reviewers of our wines; as it should be. The tasting you see here was a rigorous commentary by perfectionist and never-heard-the-word-impossible types, much of which was conducted in silence. Like any connected team, we know once anothers' agreeable expressions: Rachel will nod, Stephane's eyes will grow a bit wider and then he will move to his notebook, John Cooke's brow will rise, and Adam will show no emotion. A few words will pass. This is our way. Decisions which change the life blood of a vintage are made in a tone barely louder than a light tapping on a table top with a pencil and with the cadence of a hymn. Organized, agreed palates and minds hold the reigns confidently.

2011 overwhelmingly meets the approval of a discerning group.

In case you can't believe it. In case you don't want to, we have been inviting others in to taste the young guns of 2011. We like objectivity as much as wine around here. And we are confident showing our wines - even in their infancy - will prove out the 2011 Virginia vintage as delicious and as perfect as any snowflake: An individual for certain, but also perfect and beautiful.

Virginia's 2011 vintage - managed well - is gorgeous and delicious. At Boxwood, we are confident and pleased.

True-believerism

2011-12-16T16:22:00.004-05:00

This is an editorial pause. I was going to tell you about Stephane's visit last week but our jog through vintages and years will keep for a moment because the wine conversation this week in Virginia is important.

At Boxwood, we're absorbed in our mission - heads down and dug in. That is to say, we are energetic, pragmatic, dedicated, and most of all, fiercely genuine about our work at time to the exclusion of things swirling around us.

We talk about "local" and "terrior-driven" and "Virginia born" like we mean it, because we do, not because it was a corporate mantra foisted on our shoulders. In truth, there is nothing corporate about Boxwood, it is a family business - a Virginia family business. Our marketing was born from the mission, from the TB (true-believerism) which infects us, and from the power of the movement under-foot: We are Virginia wine and we are proud of it. It was not the other way around: marketing custom built for the endeavor - no, no.

There is a fundamental purism here, the mission speaks definitively for itself, it is defined by clarity and does not need marketing spin. You see, in my line of work: It's what we call solid. But there are other terms and colloquialisms: Like legit. Like honest.

It is easy to be wholly absorbed by our own adventure. This week we were just excited to be entering wines in the newly conceived Governor's Cup competition and we were still just talking about wine and loving our wine and our colleagues and it was, like it usually is here, one glorious wine love-in. And then (although it was at first only as gentle as a pin drop in the Twitter media) this one fact became like a sonic boon followed by jet wash: Virginia wines are not required to be entirely from Virginia and of course, it is not required to identify where the grapes are from at all. I read that Tweet and the linked article and felt as though I were in a whole new marketing world. Because, wow, I didn't know that, never stopped for a moment to think about it, because I live the message like all of us here: Terroir.

This is not at all uncommon in wine, trust me on this. It is acceptable and even encouraged practice in some regions. But we've got a different thing going in Virginia than every other place. Marketing wise, because it was a little known and youthful region, selling the world on Virginia wines was an uphill battle. I am not referring here to our good Thomas Jefferson, but to the wine-makers of the last thirty years in sum total. And the thing about Virginia is that we didn't care for the taste of not being taken seriously, we are proud of our beautiful state, and not one of these wineries is an also-ran in this endeavor. Not one. We mean to succeed, as much for no one keeping Virginia down as for saying we made the most beautiful wine in our magnificent Virginia. The pride is palpable: In the glass, in our speak, even in our wine writers. Nobody puts Virginia in the corner. Period.

And Virginians, buy Virginian, and you can take me at my word: Get yourself a Virginian, put the Boxwood Cabernet Sauvignon blend bottle next to a Californian bottle. Look me in the eyes through that monitor: When faced with a choice Virginians buy Virginia wine, I don't care who they are. You want loyalty to local products? You come meet the customers drinking flights and glasses at our tasting room and I promise you, no one will talk about being Redskins fans, they talk about what it is to be a Virginian.

I want to tell you how I know this: One day I poured a tasting for two wine bloggers and I gave them the bottles to take home and write their reviews from, and they thanked me and then asked to purchase several additional bottles of wine, "we love these wines," she told me "we only buy Virginia." That is to say, they taste wines from all over the world, but they buy Virginian.

Lastly, we run a proverbial tight ship on Boxwood: Not because John Kent Cooke told us to, but because we would choose no other way individually. There is a lot to defend here: Our status as a premiere Virginia winery but more than that - fine wine, from Virginia, United States of America. Our grapes came from these sixteen acres - we are married to this Virginia land for better or worse and all that means with regard to doing it proud. Boxwood Winery is 100% estate fruit, estate bottled, and estate-willed-into-life.

Being the marketer on the place, after reading The Flavor Magazine piece, it seemed like a good time to swoon. Good thing they told me there were concerns about the origin of the grapes in Virginia bottles, because I was dug down in Middleburg, happily regaling media with the news of our amazing 2010 and 2011's and chatting on like Mrs. Mills pet goat about the 2011 Malbec Rose. Those were innocent days, before that piece. Different days, that old yesterday.

It seems like a good time to hang from the weathervane (virtually-speaking) and reinforce: This is 100% estate fruit. No fruit comes on, none leaves. We bottle it right here in our bottling room. Boxwood accepts it on the chin economically to make estate wines with accurate terroir representation.We're so focused on this one piece of land and the wine it makes but once in a while it bears lifting your gaze from Boxwood to issue some reassurance:

We grow on 16 acres of rolling countryside in Middleburg, Virginia. There are five Bordeaux varietals here. Soon there will also be Syrah.

Every year the vines flourish: We are dry farmed and sustainable, we get what nature in Northern Virginia gives and it is good, plentiful, and delicious. We don't need anything more or different to make the best wine you will ever drink.

Everything about being here, and making wine here, is staggeringly amazing. Just look at this place. We are never finished trying to get all of this into a wine glass.

That means we have to bring it all down the hill and into the Winery by hand, very gently. It is hand-picked and sorted because that preserves terroir in the glass, Virginia terrior which is as fine as any in the world.

And then our grapes - and only our grapes - come here to be made into wine under the care of two discerning masters of the wine-making craft with the intention of making a true and complete wine representation of this hillside.

And because the rest of the world and it's centuries old experience does matter to making and blending fine Virginia wines - we put them before arguably the world's foremost authority on Bordeaux-styled wines, Stephane Derenoncourt, and this terroir stands up.

We received these awards alongside French, Italian, and Californian wines from revered chateau's. Legendary, some. Those awards were for our 100% Virginia estate wines and if you remember nothing else about Boxwood, I want you to hold on to this: Everything in that glass is from this hill right here in Middleburg, Virginia. Everything.

Boxwood Winery's Bordeaux Wine-Blending Seminar: A Wine Lovers Best Gift for 2011

2011-12-06T18:05:00.000-05:00

The Boxwood Estate Winery

presents an opportunity to give an exceptional holiday gift

The Boxwood Bordeaux Wine-Blending Seminar

conducted by

Rachel E. Martin

Executive Vice President

Boxwood Winery

Only once in 2012 will John Kent Cooke's premiere Virginia winery, Boxwood open the doors of our Chai and Cave. Attendees of the Boxwood Wine-Blending Seminar will assist in drawing off samples of our five Bordeaux varietal red wines from barrel. Guests will then use these samples in developing their own blended wine in the Boxwood Wine-Blending Seminar led by Rachel Martin.

The day will begin with a tour of Boxwood Winery and a tasting of Boxwood wines. The Blending Seminar will follow and conclude with lunch served in the Winery.

January 8, 2011*

10 am until 2 pm

$175 per person

Boxwood Winery, Middleburg, Virginia

Please reserve spaces early, the seminar will be limited to ten guests. Reservations can be made by email to cat@boxwoodwinery.com.

#vawine

Washington Post weighs in on Virginia wines Circle of Wine Writers London debut

2011-12-06T11:52:00.012-05:00

Citing the pouring of Virginia wines a momentous event for the Virginia wine industry and for Boxwood Winery in particular, Washington Post has covered our visit to London to pour our Boxwood and Topiary blends for the international organization, the Circle of Wine Writers. Read the article here.

Boxwood wines poured in London for the Circle of Wine Writers

2011-12-05T14:01:00.000-05:00

Boxwood Estate Winery was honored this past weekend to present the Boxwood and Topiary blends to the international organization, Circle of Wine Writers, in London this past weekend. Boxwood was selected along with three other extraordinary Virginia wineries to represent our state's premiere wine-making properties. This marks the first time the finest Virginia red and white wines have been presented in a joint overseas tasting. We are thrilled and humbled.

Boxwood featured in Garden & Gun's Talk of the South

2011-11-22T17:43:00.000-05:00

Boxwood Winery is pleased to be a featured wine selection in Garden & Gun Magazine's Be Thankful for Southern Wines. See the article here.

Follow the Vintage 2010: Same time next year

2011-11-10T18:52:00.001-05:00

Disclaimer: Do not try this at home. You could ruin your wine.

If the average wine enthusiast were to gather a handful of single varietal wines and attempt to combine them them into award-winning Virginian Bordeaux blends it might spell disaster, both for the perfectly good wines sacrificed for the experiment and for the tablecloth.

A lifetime of smelling and tasting and blending trials creates super-tasters like our consulting wine-maker Stephane Derenoncourt. He tastes and assesses the barrel samples of each of our five Bordeaux varietals from the previous year. By this time, the 2010 vintage had been in barrel since October of 2010; a year in oak. The character of each varietal with the benefits imparted by French oak had matured and we were now moments from meeting the Boxwood and Topiary 2010 blends.

Vintage blending is a thrilling event in any winery. The end game of beautifully rounded, complex wines is before the wine-makers and it has been a year coming.

When this day arrives each fall, we know what the blends will be generally: Boxwood is made from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Petit Verdot. Topiary is Cabernet Franc and Merlot, sometimes with a touch of Malbec. Stephane determines, according to his assessment of the nose and taste of each varietal , the percentage of each varietal used in each blende. d wine

One needs to be acutely aware of the role of each wine in the final blend: For taste, for flavor, yes. But also for their qualities as they age.

It takes a little chemistry, some math, decades of experience, and a palate bordering on super human to get the winning blend on the first try. Stephane always does. That's not luck, that's years of back-breaking work in vineyards and wineries.

And that is how the 2010 varietals merged to become the Boxwood and Topiary wines which you have not yet met. They are staggeringly beautiful and intense. But you will have to take our word for it. They are back in tank in the chai blending now.

This inital meeting of the 2010 Topiary and Boxwood blends and the people who made them is brief. Just a quick kiss and then they're gone. Shortly, they will be bottled only to rest there until we are all another year older.

Onward

2011-11-01T08:59:00.000-04:00

We are six years down the road now. Boxwood Winery came to life in age that seems altogether different: In 2004, the housing market was riding high, jobs seemed more plentiful, and perhaps life was a bit easier across the board, for small businesses especially.

The grand chateau's of Bordeaux, from which our grape clone vines originated, have known a thousand highs and lows of their own, and those of the history that effects them: Great vintages, tragic wars, continental vine disease, and so much more. The history of Haut-Brion could hardly be fit into a text book in order to be thorough with the details.

Now we have assumed our place among winery's who have become both affected by, and a significant part of, history. In only six years, we have witnessed how the world around us changes our perspective, weather patterns sear themselves into memory, and we have been strengthened as a team by our challenges.

We also know there is a difference between survival and growth. This team has no taste for mere survival. Boxwood Winery and every heart beating within it is about building, growing, and striving.

That spirit was handed-down, it is in our water supply: John Kent Cooke never intended to create half a dream or just a decent Virginia wine. All of us assembled here to win gracefully but unapologetically.

On the day the final GPS coordinates were reached. The entire staff and Lucie Morton, world-renown viticulturist, were in the winery. As is normally the case for Boxwood, there is a buzz of varying concerns being addressed: Vineyard, wine-making, maintenance, wine bars, marketing, staffing; But it seemed we all looked up at once when we knew the Syrah was on its way. We commented on how exciting it was to see eight more acres of a Rhone varietal prepped to join our original sixteen acres of Bordeaux varietals. These plans have been in the works to some degree since the start. Last winter the vineyard was sited. In these past two weeks it has become tangible: The new acreage's fence lines are in according to Lucie's plan.

When the Boxwood Syrah vines go into the ground, it will be with the might of a team whose commitment to their success has been shaped by six years of Virginian life and weather, and all the hopes that go with the bright future of a shared commitment.

Follow the vintage 2011: Night moves

2011-10-21T08:54:00.000-04:00

The first thing to know about making the best wines is that the process knows no time. It could take all night.

At Boxwood Winery, it frequently does during fermentation and maceration. These shots, of Ellen and Adam pumping over the 2011 Cabernet Franc in tank, were taken just after nine at night on a Friday, while the rest of the world is out at dinner or kicking back at home.

Around here, commitment is everything.

The tanks are monitored constantly. The time between punch-downs of the fruit caps on each tank and the last pump-over of tank juices from bottom to the top are tracked with a hawk-eye's accuracy. So, it's of no consequence that it became dark and cold outside and eventually in the Chai; when it is time to pump over, it is just time. And, it is paramount to all else.

Consequently, the wine-making and vineyard groups at Boxwood Winery are patient vigil-keepers at this time of year. Perhaps, even more in 2011 because we had a rain-soaked harvest and this makes the wine-making more challenging, and in the end, more rewarding.

Although it did rain late in the season, the 2011 vintage enjoyed four months of sun-filled glorious spring and summer days. Those months will shine in the bottle, as will the determination of these late nights in the Chai.

Follow the vintage 2011: Winemaking in the chai

2011-10-12T07:59:00.023-04:00

The 2011 vintage entered Boxwood's chai the day after harvest began. The wines are made in the chai; "chai" is an ancient term, used regularly in winery parlance, to address an above-ground wine-making room.

To the left above is the gravity feeder. Hand-sorted grapes, only those deemed superior and worthy for premiere Boxwood wines are wheeled in a stainless steel cart from the press pad to the chai. The gravity feeder has a lift for the cart bin which raises each small bit of grapes to the top of the feeder and pushes them out onto the top of a stainless tray-table above the tank.

From the tray table, the grapes are pulled by hand through the round opening at the lower left of the photograph above, where they will fall gently into the tank below.

The tank above is not full' the level of the grapes is crucial to the quality of the wine, too much or too little changes the extraction and conversion potential of the product in the tank. Grapes continue to be loaded to the tank until it is nearly brimming.

There it is: A full and ready tank of destemmed "whole berries" as we say, grapes - in other words. At Boxwood, we do not use a crusher in wine-making. In this way, we retain the fruit-full aromatics of the grapes in our wines. This will be critical far later on when you drink Boxwood wines and tell us you love the fruit character of the bouquet.

Although grapes are encased in yeast naturally - it is the grey film on the surface of the fruit above - the naturally occuring yeasts will not be reliable enough for making quality wines. Before the tank lid is closed and primary fermentation and maceration begin, Adam will "feed" the grapes and add yeast to the tank. The cover will be closed and then we wait.

Adam monitors the tanks' progress and generally three days later, the cover is pulled and the punch- downs begin.

With regard to punch down: Before you think this might be a great adventure for which to volunteer at a winery be cautioned that you must be sure-footed, unafraid of heights, posses freakish natural strength, and be relativly certain of your ability to swim. We have a staff brimming with these talents; that is not luck, that is good interviewing.

Now then, Adam climbs from over the catwalk above the tank in question, places his rubber slip-proof wine-making boots on either side of the tank opening, and proceeds to "punch down" the fruit and skin "cap" which forms on top of the juice.

This is where super human strength comes in handy: Every year at this time, watching Adam and Rachel punch down 700 gallon tanks is awe-inspiring. More so, considering their thin, bean-pole builds.

It takes time, patience, and fortitude. The punch downs continue daily until the end of the fermentation and maceration process; Depending on the varietal, anywhere from twenty to twenty-four days and occur around the clock.

There will be exhaustion, sleep deprivation, concerning levels of caffeine consumption, gravely beards, messy clothes, and a good deal of grunting.

That is how we know all is well in the chai.

Next we will "pump over" the 2011 vintage. Stay tuned.

Follow the Vintage 2011: Major varietal harvest

2011-10-06T10:57:00.125-04:00

In 2011, it started the usual way, with Boxwood's world-renown Bordelais wine-making consultant, Stephane Derenoncourt, reviewing the vineyard.

The winery management group gathered in the vineyard to review and taste our varietals and choose the harvest dates for the Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Petit Verdot. The fifth varietal, Malbec, was harvested the week before for our 2011 Rose.

We knew then, to some extent, that Virginia's harvest would have to dodge a few raindrops. Challenges are part of the process.

The major varietal harvest began with Merlot on cloudy but rainless morning.

Bins full with plump purple grape cluster are hand-harvested into bins and then moved down to the winery press pad by palate and stored overnight in a cool environment before hand-sorting the next day.

The refrigerator truck is stacked with bins overnight.

Once it is full, harvest is finished for the day. We only want as much as we can keep in peak shape overnight. For this reason, harvest of all sixteen acres can take two weeks or more.

Early the next morning, processing begins. Ellen, harvest intern at Boxwood, assists in moving clusters into the sorter.

The grapes are picked up by the elevated conveyor where they climb to the top.

And are then gently dropped into the hand-sorting area.

Once on the sorting conveyor, experienced hands sort through through the fruit and pull out any second quality fruit.

There is real beauty in the October deep-aubergine strain on hands.

In our next Follow the 2011 Vintage installment we will go with the grapes into the Chai for processing. Join us.

Follow the Vintage 2011: Malbec Rose, something amazing in the tank

2011-09-29T06:46:00.153-04:00

These were the last quiet moments in the gleaming Boxwood chai before harvest began. I show you this, because in a moment, this stillness and high shine will be gone.

These views are a testament to wine-maker Adam McTaggart's meticulousness and the care we take in keeping the winery perfectly clean and sanity; Both a necessity and responsibility of fine wine-making, this prevents a wealth of other unpleasant results.

In the last blog installment, we detailed the first day of harvest at Boxwood as the Malbec was brought in. In 2011, we will make our first all-Malbec Rose wine, this is an exciting new endeavor for Boxwood.

We harvested all the Malbec in one day. A small refrigerator truck waited next to the press pad to keep the grapes in shape for processing the next morning. When the other four varietals are harvested next week, there will be a much bigger truck on site. For now, the three rows of Malbec fit nicely in here.

To be any good at wine-making, never mind the legality of producing alcohol, you have to be a copious and accurate note-taker. Were an untrained eye to peer into that notebook it would not be at all obvious what had been noted. It is very much a language onto itself; Weights, measures, calculations, weather notations, formulas, a few words scattered here and there. Greek to me, but clear to Adam and Stephane.

The palate is swung around to the sorter and now the wine-making begins for 2011 in earnest.

These grapes were reviewed when hey were picked by experienced vineyard hands the day before. Only the finest Malbec made it into the bins. That is not enough, though. Adam or a member of his staff unloads the grapes onto the sorter and checks them again bin by bin as they enter the process on the press pad. Sorting, at Boxwood, is a grueling, season-long process, only the last three sorts occur during harvest. In truth, we have been sorting since grapes became apparent on the vines months ago.

Once satisfied we have the best product in motion, the grapes are lifted into the initial basin where a series of shelves on an upward belt lift a few grape bunches at a time in about one foot increments.

This allows the hand-sorting process on the other side of the sorter to be spaced and not overwhelm the sorting personnel.

This spacing is critical to the quality of the wine. Certainly, we need to get through a lot of grape-sorting efficiently. But, this is a premiere Virginia winery and in order to achieve the quality of Boxwood's fine red wines, we have to maintain a process that is both accurate and efficient. We drop about 25% of the grapes on to to the vineyard floor in trimming the vines in order to concentrate the flavor in the remaining grapes. Here, we could drop another 25%.

Where one winery sees waste in not making wine with those grapes. We see no choice. This is what we must do, this is what we must sacrifice to produce the best wines. Our yield is low, but we know that concentrated fruit and an unwillingness to put anything in the tanks that is not a perfect example of a Malbec grape reaps the greatest rewards. This is the reason Boxwood's wines, and the Rose's in turn, enjoy the cult following they do.

And while a bit of every good gardeners heart breaks to read that, this will all work out in the end. We will compost all the secondary grapes. Sustainability is a virtue at Boxwood.

One we are through all the sorting, the grapes are dropped into the small tanks and from here on, this wine will (unlike every other wine produced at Boxwood) be treated like a white wine.

Now, keep in mind here that this is a first for us. In past vintages, we have loaded our varietals into the large tanks in the chai and drawn off the first 25% of the juice to make our blended Rose's. This is the first time in Boxwood Winery;s history that a varietal has entered the chai with the singular role of making nothing but varietal-Rose.

Boxwood has an adventurous, youthful, pragmatic spirit. It's right there, in the tank.

Malbec Rose. Having trouble recognizing it? The tank is working and consequently foaming because it has been fed and the yeasts are active. This is a good thing; Sugars turning to alcohol and drying out the wine (to over-simplify, perhaps). But, look: Like you and I, wine is a living thing. And like anything, it needs to be fed, kept at an optimum temperature range, monitored, and maintained.

And, it will need to be pumped over.

Ah, yes, it is recognizable now. Waves of rosy goodness tumbling back and forth with a frothy cloak as Adam holds the pump-over line. The idea is that you cannot let a working tank sit still for long. You must keep it moving. We run a pipe from the bottom of the tank, attach a freestanding pump, and pump the juice at the bottom of the tank back over the top of the tank. This will be part of the process for all the wines, not only our Rose.

This Malbec beat the rain that was called for and we were all smiles in the winery - but on the whole, I will say, we have a remarkably cheerful wine-maker regardless.

Generally, we will repeat this process twice a day. One might think of it as exercises for the living yeasts in the tanks whose work will make juice into wine. It is a marvelous garnet color and it smells divine.

All of the senses are employed in the process of great wine-making. A hawk-eye and nose is in the chai with our wines at every moment. And although his notebook is a lasting authority on the vintage, Adam knows what you will do first when you encounter this wine. Now you know that he has checked the nose of this Malbec Rose hundreds of times before you encounter this wine in a glass. Rest assured, there is something amazing in that tank.

Boxwood Winery as architectural marvel: Entra Magazine

2011-09-24T07:45:00.001-04:00

Boxwood Estate Winery is pleased to be prominently featured in Entra Magazine for Design and Architecture in the September/ October 2011 issue. Both an example of fine architecture and a center for fine wine-making, Boxwood was designed by world-renowned architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen. To visit our premiere Virginia wine-making estate and see the beauty of Jacobsen's work first hand, book your tour of Boxwood Winery here.

Follow the Vintage 2011: Malbec begins the harvest

2011-09-15T08:49:00.000-04:00

The vintage record for 2011 will show that yesterday began the 2011 vintage harvest at Boxwood.
It was a glorious morning in Northern Virginia. It became a day marked by a sapphire sky and high 80's temperatures.

Luck was with us. The day would end in a spectacular lightening show and a heavy downpour but only three rows of Malbec were to be harvested yesterday. The weather held until evening and the harvest was safely through for this week.

The other four varietals on the property are waiting their turn for greatness. Boxwood's leadership, John Kent Cooke, Rachel Martin, and Stephane Derenoncourt will review the vintage with Adam's help next week and the dates for the harvest of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Petit Verdot will be settled.

These were the first inky bundles of fruit gently hand harvested from our vines. Plump, concentrated in sweet fruit, and perfectly round against the palm like indigo marbles. Were they not flecked with seeds, they would be delicious with cheese just as they are, but they are destined for glass.

One last look before they leave the hill: When the nets were lifted, the beauty of the fruit was awe-inspiring.

The end of the growing season began right here: Row 59, B Block.

Every vintage is an uphill climb, no matter how perfect the weather may be. The climb, for Adam and Rachel is not half through when the grapes leave the vineyard. They will be refrigerated in this truck next to the press pad overnight, then hand sorted, gravity fed to the tanks in the chai, and then the wine-making begins in earnest. Two years of work lay ahead from this point: Wine-making, barrel fermenting, blending, bottling, and aging among other minute tasks which will be accomplished meticulously and go unmentioned; there is much unhailed heroics in every job well done.

Harvest is only the end of the beginning of the 2011 Boxwood Winery vintage. Each year, the successes in the bottles and the awards bestowed upon Boxwood wines, make the stakes ever-higher - out there - in the world of media and reviews. But here, all of that is nothing. We believe there is no such thing as luck. There is only hard work. The work is real, provides control, and is tangible in the fruit and the quality of the wine. The grapes don't care that we hold a Decanter Silver Medal. We have to nurture a harvest to greatness anew. We are not as good as we were last vintage, we are as good as the sweat on our brows this morning.

This Malbec harvest will create a 2011 Boxwood Rose; something exciting and new for us all.

Off we go, then. Wine-making commences this morning.

Boxwood Winery selected a "Must See" by Celebrated Living Magazine

2011-08-25T09:25:00.001-04:00

The most recent edition of Celebrated Living Magazine features Boxwood Winery as one of Nine "Must See" wineries throughout the world. We are thrilled to have been named among legendary French, Spanish, and Californian chateau's as a modern architectural marvel.

We have recently expanded Boxwood Winery's tour schedule. Plan your visit to our "Must See" on the Boxwood website here.

Living Color

2011-08-11T17:23:00.000-04:00

This is the last time I will show you Boxwood's vineyard as a green canopy of vines tipped in grape clusters. Once the grapes begin to change color, and the versaion process begins, little animal noses and bird beeks are dancing with delight. Grapes, when they are in the process of growing, have mostly herbal aromas. Once they turn color, they smell of fruit: Delicious, tasty fruit.

While we have the decoy crows flying above the rows, soon it will not be enough. Raccoons are talented climbers. Foxes can slip though a sliver of a gap. Birds of brilliant color and just as brilliant grape-picking skills seem to materialize from nowhere. And if all this were allowed to continue, one can image the paltry gulp of wine they might leave for us, if we were lucky.

The nets are rising in the vineyard now. Soon they will cover all of the fruit to protect them from our Northern Virginia wildlife. So, let's have a good long look now, while 2011 is still bare in the rows.

Malbec: It is a shade of purple perfectly suited to royalty in skins like velvet. It was the first varietal on the property to go through verasion and the color change is complete now. In 2011, the majority of Malbec will be dedicated to our Rose wine.

While the color of these photographs could easily be assumed to be enhanced, it is not. This is our magnificent vineyard in high Virginia summer just as I found it this morning: The depth of purples and greens and the way the light strikes each leaf is true to life, and moreover, true to the depth of the wines which will be crafted from this vineyard in 2011.

The Merlot is about halfway through color change. Again, no color enhancement. It is dark as good coffee in places, but still citrine green in others. The contrast is remarkable from color to color, but also from the Malbec (above) which leans to jewel tones while the Merlot is darker, edgier, - sexier, somehow.

The Cabernet Franc is another story altogether. Verasion is about half complete on the downward slope, toward the top of the hill though, it has just begun: A grape here or there is purple.

The Cabernet Franc is painfully photogenic and that is evident here: The color dimension in the verasion process was so magically and inexplicably varied in these rows, there will never be enough photographs to have shown it justice.

The Cabernet Sauvignon is quietly making its move to purple. As Adam, our wine-maker says, it can happen overnight, it can be that fast. And once it goes, you can hardly imagine it had only the day before been green as a fairway. But it was.

Nature works in wondrous, colorful ways.

Follow the Vintage 2011: On birds and decoys

2011-08-05T09:13:00.003-04:00

Out in the vineyard these days it is hot, dry, and verdant. As night rolled off the vines yesterday at dawn, so too did the nightly ghostliness out there: The morning mist of Virginia's high summer. These last four years, Virginia has experienced a wealth of dry vintages. 2011 too, has proven a largely rain-free growing season.

The sort of organized, clean, linear perfection you see here is the stamp of winemaker Adam McTaggart's work. Each year at this time the beauty of the vineyard strikes a person speechless. It takes a moment to remember one man has overseen the taming of nature's greening instincts to strike a balance between healthy vineyard and concentrated grape flavor.

We are a month, more or less, from the start of our 2011 harvest and we are not the only ones who know it; the vineyard group have been installing winged decoys and reflective flags throughout the vineyard blocks. Boxwood is sustainable as well as consciousness of neighborliness: A vineyard's standard procedure to deter bird calls for the use of propane cannons. But we are guardians of a quiet countryside and silent, earth-friendly options are the only ones for Boxwood.

These gentle reminders help to keep the bird faction from nibbling the vintage to seedy bits.

The Cabernet Sauvignon does look both delicious and inviting. One can hardly blame our winged thieves. But those tannins are meant for palates other than avian.

These kinds of civilized decoy solutions prevent standing about in the vineyard waving our arms like mad people and periodically bursting into a sprint across A block to chase off our pesky feathered pals.

This vineyard rests inside a twelve foot deer fence. It was plotted to take advantage of the sun but not be scorched by it. It absorbs as much water into the soil as nature gives it because we do not irrigate. Nature, in all of it's incarnations, is both the challenge and the beauty of a vineyard. It is a handshake with the greatest of all partners. Respecting the agreement between human agriculture and nature means we live alongside the green gift of a vineyard. We tread lightly within it. And we agree to mutual sustenance.

But once in a while, all great partners have to remind one another of the boundaries of the handshake.

Boxwood's Topiary hailed by CNBC

2011-08-02T10:39:00.001-04:00

Boxwood Estate Winery's Topiary 2007 Vintage has made CNBC's list of award winning wines. Proudly, Topiary 2007 is the only wine from the United States to make the list. Find Topiary and our other Boxwood wines at these fine retailers and restaurants.

Follow the Vintages 2010 and 2011: Stephane's mid-season review at Boxwood

2011-07-20T11:40:00.001-04:00

There is a lot of excitement at Boxwood when consulting wine-maker Stephane Derenoncourt is on the property. Though these days begin as many others, with coffee in the tasting room at the Winery and conversations about how the growing season is progressing, the curiosity about the impressions of a wine-making legend on the vineyard and the wines in aging is palpable.

Stephane's presence on the property causes the Winery population to swell: Rachel and Adam are in-house daily but there are a half-dozen or more Boxwood staff and consultants on hand when Stephane has arrived.

The vineyard is generally the first order of discussion and review; the 2011 season is ten feet tall on our sixteen acres under vine.

The group headed into the vineyard early as temperatures were expected to approach ninety degrees by noon.

At first on mules and then on foot, a handful of remarkable types begin a systematic review of Boxwood's five Bordeaux varietals. In the Cabernet Franc rows from right to left, Lucie Morton, viticultural consultant to Boxwood, Adam McTaggaart, winemaker and vineyard manager, John Kent Cooke, owner and President, and Rachel Martin, Executive Vice President.

The Cabernet Franc, like all the varietals reviewed, is healthy, verdant, and lush. In order to concentrate the vine's effort and resources, some grapes will be pruned from the vines. This process is only beginning. Through the remainder of the growing season, those grape clusters deemed non-essential to world class wine making will be dropped to the center of the row and returned to the earth as compost.

Stephane's inspection of the vineyard begins with a quick toss of his ever-present notebook on to the soil as his vine-clippers emerge from his pocket.

He and Adam will inspect the fruit, the health of the vines, and discuss the method of pruning for each varietal. When Stephane is not on the property, they continue to consult and review regularly by phone and electronically.

Lucie Morton, renowned American viti-culturist, has consulted with Boxwood for nearly six years. This vineyard, as it is plotted and laid with vine, was her creation. Her continued involvement in Boxwood's future speaks to the longevity of all of Boxwood Winery's group: Committed to the long-term growth of one of Virginia's first premiere and world-class wineries. The first part of the endeavor is well on its way to accomplished at Boxwood and world-class longevity is the product of time and continued excellence. The group in these pictures will, without a doubt, be those who see that endeavor into a lasting reality for Virginia wine-making.

They are unassuming, humble, and congenial though the task before them has always been daunting. This is great team; their positive energy and chemistry drives Boxwood's culture of excellence.

There is the proof of their success (among many notable others): Their Decanter World Wide Wine Award next to the barrel sample beakers set up for the 2010 barrel review after the vineyard visit.

Adam lead the group through the tasting.

We tasted barrel examples of all the varietals of the 2010 vintage which is touted by Virginia wine pundits as being a vintage which will surpass in quality our famed 2007's. Without giving away the secrets in our glasses, we can say they may be on to something. But it will be a while before we can share these with you: Great wine takes time.

And meticulous care.

Not to mention the discerning, educated palates of its overseers.

We grow five red varietals on the Boxwood Estate. The group tasted and discussed our Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, and Malbec, largely by single varietal.

It could be a laborious process but there is always pleasant, lively discussion and it gives us time to talk over other happenings since Stephane's last visit.

Beyond tasting wines and talking business, this is a bit of quality time for the group as well which, in our estimation, is as important as anything else to making great wine.

Boxwood Winery is an all-hand's-in enterprise: Our President, John Kent Cooke tastes these wines shoulder-to-shoulder with the staff. Rachel has long kept as a policy that all winery staff will be kept abreast of the wines' progress. We can all speak to our vintages, we have known them intimately since birth.

This is a common site at our tastings: Stephane's pen poised above his notebook before the tasting glasses.

There is no more to tell you today. These wines will change, grow, react, and develop. While we watch them with a hawks eye we would be remiss to describe them to you now, before they mature and before they are blended. But, I will tell you it is difficult to retrain myself from typing the phrase, "world beaters".

John Kent Cooke's Journey from Redskins to Red Wine: NOVA Exec Magazine

2011-07-15T08:38:00.001-04:00

Boxwood Winery's owner, John Kent Cooke is prominently featured in this month's NOVA Exec Magazine in John Kent Cooke's Journey from Redskins to Red Wine (page 48). View the full article here. John Kent Cooke's video interview and tour of Boxwood Winery in the series The Virginians, is also available for viewing on the NOVA Exec site and is a wonderful commentary on the same remarkable journey.

Boxwood Winery accepts American Treasure Award

2011-07-08T05:05:00.001-04:00

MADE: In America, a charity which supports American business endeavor and historic perspectives bestowed the prestigious American Treasure Award on Boxwood Winery on July 4, 2011 at President Lincoln's Cottage at the Solider's Retirement Home in Washington D.C.

President Lincoln considered the Cottage a sanctuary in which to consider his Presidency. He met with Civil War generals, oppostion leaders, and leaders from every corner of American life here.

President Lincoln left the Cottage for the last time the day before his death. A recent renovation has restored the Cottage to accurate period detail. No air-conditioning runs to this day, it remains a place where curtains billow in the summer air as in this 1863 image.

It is a moving place; arguably the President which oversaw the most change and the most heart-wrenching of wars walked those halls. We went there, humbly, to accept an award. But more than that, to be reminded on the Forth of July of the freedoms people of this caliber and character brought the American table. These freedoms preceded our arrival by one hundred and sixty years but are as acutely powerful now as then.

And now a disclaimer: I am not charged with being an objective observer in what follows and I would be less than accurate to allow you to believe it was anything less than it was.

After Boxwood Winery's EVP Rachel Martin accepted the American Treasure Award, Boxwood Winery's staff and guests were welcomed to the West Terrace of The United States Capital to enjoy the concert and fireworks from The Hill.

It was, without a doubt, one of the most spectacular and memorable things I have ever witnessed. For this reason, our photographs from that night are presented now without caption interruption.

We saw all this, and we were awed to be American and grateful for all those who came ahead.

Boxwood's Tasting Room Wine Bar featured in Webster Style Magazine Online

2011-06-24T05:00:00.001-04:00

Boxwood Winery and The Tasting Room Wine Bar of National Harbor enjoyed a great review from Webster Style Magazine online. View the full article here.