Follow the 2010 vintage: Malo

Wine making is a consistent process of scientific analysis. Consequently, Adam takes samples for testing perpetually and benevolently throughout the winemaking process. The finer points of a wine's final balance are sorted out in the cave: The wines are routinely tested and managed there for the year they dwell in barrel.

Once the 2010 vintage rests safely in French oak for secondary fermentation in Boxwood's cave, the malolactic fermentation process ("malo" in winemaking parlance) begins on our new wines. For the palate of our finished red wines to exhibit a full and rounded character, the wines will be subjected to steam-still testing. According to Adam's findings, they will receive beneficial bacteria to tip the balance away from the harsh, metallic, and sour tasting natural malic acid and towards the softer, more buttery lactic acid. These bacteria are organically derived and critical to the production of red wines as a complete class.

Lactic acid will ultimately contribute to the wine's refinement, allowing both the fruit and oak character to step forward in barrel aging. Boxwood's blends will have clarity in their aroma, flavor, and mouthfeel owing to the malolactic fermentation process.

This is exacting work and Adam is fastidious: If the balance is not achieved correctly, any number of faults can crop up in the wine. If a wine leans too heavily to the malic it can be unpleasantly edgy and taste of metals. If the balance is offset to the lactic side, it can cause aromas of mousy taint, sour milk, or sauerkraut. Any part of these wholly undesirable characteristics is unacceptable.

To establish the amount of bacteria necessary for each wine, samples are analysed in a Volatile Acid Still.



Here, the wine enters the glass encasement at the center of the still, distilled water is heated underneath to create steam, and the distillate titrated to determine the total volatile acidity of the sample.



A decision on the inclusion of beneficial bacteria for each barrel is made based on these results.



Adam, with help and advice from Stephane, will manage this masterfully. Having once again tasted Boxwood's glorious Topiary, 2007 yesterday, I can assure you, the wines are in the hands of unyielding taskmasters.

The Perfect Holiday Gift: Boxwood's exclusive Cellar Tasting Tours

EXCLUSIVE CELLAR TASTING TOURS

WITH

RACHEL MARTIN

will be offered on

January 15, 2011 at 1 pm and 3 pm

January 29, 2011 at 1 pm and 3 pm

$125 per person

These exclusive events will include a comprehensive Boxwood Winery tour with Rachel Martin, including cellar and barrel tastings, a personal note of invitation from Rachel, and one bottle of Boxwood Estate wine.

Rachel, Boxwood Winery's Executive Vice President of Winery Operations and daughter of John Kent Cooke, our founder, looks forward to welcoming guests of these special tour events. You and your guests will enjoy an exclusive tour of our winery with cellar tastings of our unreleased 2009 and 2010 Boxwood vintages. This is a rare opportunity to see Boxwood through the eyes of our founding family and taste our young wines years before release.

Please make your reservations early by contacting us as follows:

contact@boxwoodwinery.com

(540)687-8778

Credit card payment will be required at the time of reservation.

Cellar tasting tours will be limited to 8 people for these times only for a total of 24, please reserve your spaces as soon as possible.

Farewell, Meg

For a while, but entirely not long enough, this brilliant and glowing young woman worked along side us at Boxwood. Meg Christensen, with us for two months to intern with Adam in wine-making for harvest, left our ranks this past Friday to return home. In this short time, she became very precious to us. We all braced ourselves a little for this farewell.

Aside from being an all-around gorgeous creature of remarkable talents, warmth, and generosity, Meg is a pastry chef from Philadelphia. For two months she has worked tirelessly with Adam to get a feel for his work as a wine-maker: Nights, weekends, hot, cold, covered in red wine tank-cap. Her commitment and determination were remarkable and unyielding.

This past Friday, we gathered together to wish Meg well now that harvest has ended and she is returning to Philadelphia. I know you can see in the faces of our founders, Rita and John Kent Cooke - photographed above at Meg's farewell - that from the top down, we think the world of Meg.


We can only hope for you, Meg, that these days, while exhausting and surely endless at times, were extraordinary.

In your first days here, when Stephane arrived to call the harvest in, you stood next to Wine Spectator's "World's Hottest Winemaker," and Lucie Morton - certainly one of the world's hottest viticulturists. I hope that day stays with you; In the wine making world, that was extraordinary stuff.

The photo above still moves me: Stephane Derenoncourt, John Kent Cooke, Rachel Martin, Lucie Morton, and Adam McTaggart. Wine legends. Meg Christensen, pictured with them during harvest review above, is no less a legend around the place now than these titans of the wine industry.

Hard to believe that is what the vineyard looked like when Meg arrived in September. Verdant. Ready to come in. I imagine Meg had little clue what lay ahead then.



Adam cut the first Merlot from the vine a day after Meg arrived at Boxwood. That quick snip of vine began two months of her diligent investment in the 2010 vintage.

Looking back on it now, she is fearless. This is Meg above the Merlot tanks during pump-over. No complaints, just her back-breaking commitment to the task. She is an example to all of us.



Meg understood Boxwood inherently from the outset: Toil. Dedication. Commitment. Energy.

She kept it real for us and our customer: There is no room or time for vanity in wine-making and we take a lot of pictures. Without hesitation, Meg was willing to pause for a moment to allow the 2010 vintage to be chronicled accurately.

We will miss this glowing die-hard. And her white Wellies.



It seems safe to write on behalf of our entire group at Boxwood, that these months with Meg have been our pleasure and the place will not be the same without her.



Even our beloved mascot is looking a little forlorn.



We can only hope you make it back to Middleburg often.

Our glasses will always be held high when your name is mentioned, Meg. Don't be a stranger.