Inside Channing Daughters
Written By: Romany Reagan on Fri, May 9th 2008
One of my favorite local vineyards here in New York is Channing Daughters, on the North Fork of Long Island (http://channingdaughters.com/). They always have interesting new blends and methods to try - - and thus far, according to this girl's palate, nary a misfire. Their Scuttlehole Steel-fermented Chardonnay is elixir enough to make you want to shatter those buttery Cali Chards against your fireplace in solidarity. I got curious to get a little Channing on Channing, and General Manager and Partner Allison Dubin was happy to oblige me with some answers to my questions. The curtain parts...
Romany Reagan: What significance does the name "Channing Daughters" have?
Allison Dubin: Walter Channing has four daughters. When he and Larry Perrine, the founding partners, were coming up with a name, they thought that they would like to name the company with the word "daughters" in it, as there are so many with "sons," so they named it Channing Daughters, no possessive but in the spirit of daughters.
RR: What was the inspiration to start Channing Daughters?
AD: Channing Daughters was founded when Walter Channing and Larry Perrine got together and decide to make place-appropriate wines from our estate in Bridgehampton and from old vines planted by the Mudd family on the North Fork.
RR: What niche do you fill in the New York state market?
AD: We grow grapes that reach the fullest potential that we can grow in our cool climate/maritime wine growing region. We are interested in pushing the limits of our vineyard, our cellar and our region to make the most delicious and highest quality wines we can make.
RR: With sustainability becoming increasingly important to the consumer, do you anticipate people will be turning more and more to their local wineries, making New York as popular for east coast table space as Napa?
AD: Why not?
RR: Have you instigated any sustainable/green practices in your vineyards and wineries, or have plans to do so in the future?
AD: Yes, we have been as sustainable as possible for as long as we have been in existence.
RR: That's great! What are some of the challenges of growing grapes and making wine on Long Island?
AD: The challenges of [our] grape growing are humidity and rain, birds and deer.
RR: Channing Daughters is an exciting winery for me because you come up with unexpected and innovative blends. Are there any new wines in the works we can look forward to you unveiling in the future?
AD: New vintages are coming out all year long. We recently unveiled our 'Over & Over,' a Solera, Ripassso style red wine. [*Please see description below.]
RR: As a vineyard, winery and company--where do you see yourselves in 5 years?
AD: We will continue to push the envelope and improve quality!
Over & Over-Variation 1
"In our search for more delicious, complex and interesting red wines we are finally ready to present you with Variation 1 of our new wine, Over & Over. Over & Over is the result of both a ripasso project and a solera system. It all began with four barrels of 2004 Sculpture Garden Merlot, three of which were taken out of the barrel and re-passed over the fresh 2006 Merlot and Dornfelder fruit. The wine underwent another primary fermentation and was pressed and racked to barriques, hogsheads and puncheons where it underwent another malo-lactic fermentation. All the wine was blended and half was taken and bottled after ten months in oak. The other half has now been re-passed again over the fresh fruit from the 2007 harvest. Half will be bottled again next year and this will go on Over & Over. So what do we have in the bottle we label Variation One? A dry purple colored wine with red inflections and great clarity whose pronounced aromatics defy description of one grape variety. This vivacious and alive wine has elements of the old and the new, the warm and the cool, the north and the south."
Channing Daughters a forward-thinking winery when it comes to adventurous combinations, take Mudd's 28% Cabernet Sauvignon, 61% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, 4.5% Blaufränkisch and 2.5% Dornfelder. Go on. Say it 10 times fast. Oy! Ok, stop. However what I've learned which greatly pleases me, is not only are they breaking new ground on the flavor front, but they are also a green company committed since their inception to sustainable practices. So next time you're hemming and hawing about whether to go NY or not on your next wine purchase, give Channing Daughters a try. They're good for the taste buds and good for the planet, which is very forward-thinking indeed.
