Channing Daughters Vineyards and Winery
this place is great. We were greeted by Remy the winemaker’s labradoodle and served by Debbie at the tasting bar and we tasted through some of their exciting wines. We also had a nice chat with Remy’s dad, Chris Tracy and Larry Perrine, CEO and Guru at Channing.
Here are the highlights:

2009 Envelope (Orange Wine) As far as I know the category of “orange wine” is unique to Channing. This is a white wine made with prolonged skin contact so the wine picks up the little bit of pigment that exists as well as some structure and tannin from the skins. It is a white grape wine made the way a red is made. The name “Envelope” refers to the phrase “pushing the envelope” which is exactly what they are doing.

2011 Rosato di Refosco (Pink Wine) They made 8 different roses in the 2011 vintage! of the 2 or 3 I tried (the memory is a pink haze now) I liked the Refosco the best. Made from a Northern Italian grape called Refosco it is so fresh with strawberry, cranberry and raspberry notes, not too fruity but not austere either with really nice balance.

2007 Mudd (Red Wine) This is a red blend of mostly Merlot with Syrah and about 20% of blaufrankish, dornfelder & cab franc. I love that even their big reds, like this one, is moderate in alcohol at only 12.8%. Believe it or not, this wine is actually foot trodden! Yes like that episode of I Love Lucy only I think they wear fishing waders.
The aromas of berry fruit berries simmer below the surface with overtones of earth, spice and some cocoa flavors. The tannins are nicely resolved and it is drinking great right now. We had this wine with an excellent strip steak we got from Shagwong in MTK.

These were my faves from the wines we tried in the tasting room, at Mora’s we carry:
Channing Daughters Blaufrankisch Sylvanus Vineyard 2010