SLACK WINERY

Slack Winery 2002-2020

Starting our vineyard twenty years ago seems like a full lifetime past. We didn’t know much about agriculture back then, but we had my brother Mark with us to create meticulously tended young vines which I would walk with joy. Early on the challenge was to learn which vines would adapt best to the punishing humidity of the mid-Atlantic. Cabernet Franc was a winner for us, and from other vineyards we were impressed with Chardonnel, an American hybrid, and Petit Manseng, a lesser known French vinifera. We learned a lot about wine making from our old vineyard. The Montepulciano was arguably our best wine ever, but the vines didn’t take to this climate. So we moved on. — Maggie O’Brien

Slack Winery 2020—2023

Vineyards are laboratories, and the research chemist in me can’t resist the challenge to go with the good, forget the failed, and keep the fermentation fervor alive. If Monty was our best red ever, then White Shoals was hands down the best white ever. Made in the classic méthode champenoise, we double dosed the yeast in 2010 and released an extraordinary wine in 2012.

A few years ago we began to replant the vineyard and now we’re ready to release our new White Shoals in 2023. In our second generation of sparkling wines we have three old standbys from the Shoals series: White Shoals, Rocky Shoals, and In the Flowers.

We’re also releasing a newbie: In the Pink! This has special meaning for me and my siblings, as my father used this expression freely whenever he was feeling a need to express how great life was. “In the Pink, honeys! In the Pink!” he’d say. — Maggie O’Brien

WINE & FINE THINGS

Slack Farms store is Wine & Fine Things in the Magnolia Cottage. In addition to our fine wines which will be back in stock again in 2025, we will offer other fine things on occasion from the barn, including art & antiques.