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w w w. v w m m e d i a . c o m M a r - A p r 2 014 | V I N E YA R D & W I N E RY M A N A G E M E N T 7 9 ment she lacked – in-depth knowl- edge of vineyards and winemaking. But no worries: Martin headed off to Napa Valley College to study viticulture and enology. She also worked on her French language skills, which were an important asset at her next stop, the Univer- sity of Bordeaux, where she stud- ied for a Diplome d'Aptitude de Dégustation (DUAD). In Bordeaux, Martin met vigneron extraordinaire Stephane Derenon- court, whose contact information she filed away for future reference. In 2005, she was appointed execu- tive vice president of Boxwood. Martin said that despite the fam- ily's decades-long business and to oversee Boxwood's vineyard establishment. The estate was pur- chased in 2001, but Morton didn't rush forward to get plants into the ground. Instead, she spent two years gathering soil samples and installing weather-recording sta- tions throughout site. The first vines – cabernet franc – were planted by laser, with subse- quent plantings done by hand. The vineyards, which Morton designed to conform to the land's contours, are monitored by a GPS system customized to record the care and performance of each vine. (Seven acres have recently been added to the original 16-acre vineyard.) A k n o w l e d g e a b l e o b s e r v e r personal connections on the West Coast, when John Kent Cooke and his wife, Rita (Martin's mother), decided to open a winery, California was never a part of the discussion. "It was always about being in Vir- ginia. Virginia has been our home for over 30 years," she said. After purchasing a 150-acre farm in Middleburg, Va., where Boxwood Estate Winery would be conceived, Cooke's next priority was to build a team to steer the project forward. VINEYARD PLANNING Lucie Morton, the most influ- ential viticulture consultant in the East today, was the obvious choice Photo: James Hanna Photography