Albert Boxler’s Homecoming
by Tom Wolf
Boxler’s vines in Niedermorschwihr, Alsace
© Luke Kammann
2020 Boxler collection
© Tom Wolf
This collection features four wines that represent the most exquisite introductions to Boxler’s range of talent and terroir. They come from old vines planted in granitic soils and vary from chiseled, floral, and zesty—the Chasselas and Sylvaner—to more lush, honeyed, and perfectly suited to spicy dishes—the Pinot Blanc and Edelzwicker. All four are perfect embodiments of what they aspire to be. In a word, magnificent.
Boxler’s vines in Niedermorschwihr, Alsace
© Luke Kammann
2020 Boxler collection
© Tom Wolf
This collection features four wines that represent the most exquisite introductions to Boxler’s range of talent and terroir. They come from old vines planted in granitic soils and vary from chiseled, floral, and zesty—the Chasselas and Sylvaner—to more lush, honeyed, and perfectly suited to spicy dishes—the Pinot Blanc and Edelzwicker. All four are perfect embodiments of what they aspire to be. In a word, magnificent.
Albert Boxler’s Homecoming
by Tom Wolf
Albert Boxler no doubt had a lot to think about while crossing the Atlantic back to France on the eve of the Second World War. He’d been called home to Alsace from the U.S., where he worked not as a vineyard hand in California or Oregon, but as a trapper in Montana of all things, as if embodying a romanticized vision of what an American man in the Mountain West might do for a living.
I’d like to think that, among war-related concerns, Albert also spent some of his journey home dreaming up a new future for his family’s centuries-old domaine, one in which Albert and his family would stop supplying the cave coopérative and begin bottling their own wine, selling it under their own beautiful label designed by his cousin (and still used today). But whatever bold visions of independence Albert may have conjured then, he surely had no idea that his homecoming would turn out to be a pivotal moment for the future of Alsatian—and French—wine, and that his grandson Jean would one day make some of the finest white wines in France, each bottle coursing with elegance and electricity, each glass a jumper cable for jaded palates.
As talented and perfectionist as Jean is, though, a huge part of his success today is a result of the foresight and hard work of Albert and later his son, Jean-Marc, who had an unrivaled palate and uncompromising work ethic. Beginning in the late 1940s, and for the next several decades, Albert and his family gradually assembled one of the most breathtaking collections of vineyards in Alsace—many of them cascading down precipitous slopes that lay abandoned because they were so hard to farm. The photo above offers a glimpse of the Boxlers’ idyllic hometown, the village of Niedermorschwihr, and its surrounding vineyards, but to have a real sense of Albert’s feat, imagine if just one small family domaine farmed most of the hill of Corton or Hermitage.
Today, these stunning plots provide the material for most of Jean’s three dozen cuvées. This collection features four wines that represent the most exquisite introductions to Boxler’s range of talent and terroir. They come from old vines planted in granitic soils and vary from chiseled, floral, and zesty—the Chasselas and Sylvaner—to more lush, honeyed, and perfectly suited to spicy dishes—the Pinot Blanc and Edelzwicker. All four are perfect embodiments of what they aspire to be. In a word, magnificent.
Wines In The Collection
Albert Boxler France | Alsace
Often featuring grand cru fruit, this bottling is arguably the ideal entry point to Boxler’s range of magnificent white wines.
Albert Boxler France | Alsace
With beautiful texture and notes of honeysuckle, peaches, and stones, this Pinot Blanc is a masterful display of subtlety and refinement.
Albert Boxler France | Alsace
With unrivaled versatility at table and guaranteed mouthwatering abilities, Sylvaner brings something new and fresh to the table.
France | Alsace
Often featuring grand cru fruit, this bottling is arguably the ideal entry point to Boxler’s range of magnificent white wines.
France | Alsace
With beautiful texture and notes of honeysuckle, peaches, and stones, this Pinot Blanc is a masterful display of subtlety and refinement.
France | Alsace
With unrivaled versatility at table and guaranteed mouthwatering abilities, Sylvaner brings something new and fresh to the table.
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