Channing Daughters, Pinot Grigio 2009 (Long Island) $20, 12.5% abv

::: peeking out :::

Hi.

Remember me?

You probably thought this blog was dead.

Well, it was mostly dead. See, there's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is still alive.

And as such, I still have things -- well, wine mostly -- that I want to talk about. For instance, this 2009 Channing Daughters Pinot Grigio.

This wine is 100% Pinot Grigio made from grapes coming from both Channing Daughters' Bridgehampton estate on the South Fork of Long Island (aka The Hamptons) and Mudd's vineyard on the North Fork. Aromatics are heavily weighted towards orchard fruits (especially golden delicious apples and pears) and pretty white flowers.

I found the palate to be medium weight with juicy acidity -- not too searing, not too soft. The wine was aged in a mix of stainless steel and various-sized oaks that helped elevate this to a classy sort of Pinot Grigio (not to be confused with the water-like cheap & cheerful versions all to prevalent in the marketplace). There was also a gentle wash of Lemonheads outside shell (ya know? The sweet outside part? Not the sour middle?) and bitter zest on the finish that I really enjoyed.

I opened this wine at home with a pu-pu platter from the local ghetto Chinese takeaway joint. The caramelized plummy spare ribs were a bit too intense (but I was dreaming of a Loire Valley gamay for that) but the Channing Daughters wine stepped up as a refreshing counterpoint to the fried chicken wings.

That's right. BBQ spare ribs and fried chicken wings. Only authentic Chinese takeaway for me.

Gristina Vineyards, Merlot 1995 (North Fork), $NA, 12% abv

My friend insists the best burger on the North Fork of Long Island is at Jamesport Country Kitchen. A charming little café on the Main Road, their wine list emphasizes local wines, including the largest collection of library Long Island wine I’ve ever seen. Two local red wines from the mid-90s were even offered by the glass.

I ordered a glass of the 1995 Merlot from Gristina out of morbid curiosity: Gristina Vineyards have had two more owners since this wine was made. I don’t have a lot of experience with older Long Island wine but I’m happy to commit to a glass.

While it was open, Gristina’s wines garnered attention from Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, and Robert Parker. Gallucio Family Wineries bought Gristina in the summer of 2000 and continued to co-opt the Gristina name for a short time. Gallucio planned to expand production but was advised against it by his Bordeaux consultant Michael Rolland right before September 11th happened.

The property was on the market for a few years before Macari Vineyards bought half of it in late 2007 (the other half was sold to the Peconic Land Trust earlier in the year.)


This 15-year old wine was medium (-) intensity of garnet with a little bricking showing on a thin rim. The aromas were medium intensity and included dried plums, raisins, green herbs like parsley, and then a slight dank earth & cinnamon. The aromas didn’t evolve after the first five minutes, though that was partly because the day’s special was a fried flounder sandwich so when that arrived to the table next to me, all I could smell was Long John Silvers.

The flavors were dominated by sour dried plums, cocoa, and bitter espresso beans, with a somewhat short finish. There was a low amount of stalky tannins still in the wine that were a bit distracting. Acid was a little less than a medium amount, so I suspect the tannins from the stalks (or maybe there was some barrel age?) was what was helping to hold this wine together through the years.

The burger was interesting. I had the ‘Jamesport Burger’ which comes topped with Boursin Herb Cheese (the Velveeta of France, no?), a vaguely Dijon-mustard flavored sauce, and served on a pizza-slice wedge of Focaccia Bread. The fries were crisp, hot, and perfect.

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…)