Channing Daughters “Sylvanus” 2008 (The Hamtons, Long Island) $24, 12% abv

I spend a lot of time on the east end of Long Island and the wines from Channing Daughters have always charmed me because they bottle grapes outside the popular international varieties. Tocai Friulano, Gewurztraminer, Aligote, Blaufrankisch, and Dornfelder are not typical grapes that come to mind when thinking about Long Island wine. Vinification techniques are not so straight forward either, with winemaker Christopher Tracy co-fermenting field blends, allowing wild yeast fermentations, and good ol’ foot-stomping of the grapes. For the really esoterically-inclined, he even uses a ripasso and solera process on a single red wine bottling (“Over & Over” series), and has an ‘orange wine’ made from pinot grigio fermented on its skins (“Ramato”).

Generally speaking, when a wine is made, the grapes, say Muscat, are picked & fermented on their own schedule depending on their ripeness, and then another, say Pinot Grigio grapes, would proceed the same on their own time, maybe a few weeks before or after the Muscat. The two separate wines would then be tasted, measured out, and blended together to make the final product.

Not this guy.



The Sylvanus is described as a ‘vin de terroir’ as it is a field blend of grapes that are randomly grown together, harvested at the same time, and then fermented together. This allows the wine to express the terroir of a single vineyard in a snapshot of time. Sounds romantic and all, and lucky for us, the final wine here is a gorgeous expression of the Sylvanus vineyard on the South Fork.

Sylvanus is a field blend of 43% Msucat Ottonel, 44% Pinot Grigio, and 13% Pinot Bianco. The wine is very pale straw color, and not completely starbright, reflecting its minimal handling in the winery. Medium-intensity aromas of lemon, stones, green apples, and pears develop into flavors of more meyer lemons, honeysuckle flowers, melon, and crisp green apples in the mouth. The wine is on the light side of medium bodied, with medium tingly acidity, and a minerally finish.

I had this with an easy weeknight dinner of breaded pork cutlet with lemon pan sauce over spinach, but this would be a great aperitif or as a fabulous match for ocean’s candystore of oysters and scallops.

(Sorry for the shiny pic. Silver label was giving me some trouble…)