Producer Profile
Channing Daughters
Long Island, New York, USA

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Channing Daughters

Long Island, New York, USA

Creativity and craftsmanship in every sip

Walter Channing, founder and owner of Channing Daughters, is a keen wood sculptor and his love for nature, textures and form is a big part of the estate’s ethos and style. Together with CEO Larry Perrine and winemaker Christopher Tracy, Channing has created a truly unique project that combines craftsmanship and experimentation in equal measures. Together they’ve been able to harness the potential of Long Island’s terroir to make idiosyncratic wines with a natural soul.

Location: Long Island, New York, USA

Working with us since: 2019

Total area under vine: 11 hectares

Viticultural standards: Certified under (and founding members of) the Long Island Sustainable Winegrowing Program

Website: www.channingdaughters.com

Interesting fact: Channing Dauhghter’s winery and tasting room are surrounded by Walter’s sculpture garden. His work has been widely shown in prestigious galleries and museums but is best appreciated at ‘home’ while walking the estate’s vineyards and sipping a glass of Channing’s wine.

Channing Daughters Wines

Channing Daughters grow an impressive two dozen varieties across 11 hectares of vineyards. Planted between 1982 and 2007, the vineyards reflect the evolution from Walter Channing’s initial Burgundian experiments – with a great focus on Chardonnay – to the steady introduction of Italian cultivars, namely after Larry Perrine joined the company in 1995. Today, Channing’s management team consists of Larry, a legendary viticulture and oenology consultant that is now CEO and co-owner of the estate, and of Christopher Tracy, also partner and head winemaker. Walter, Larry and Christopher share a non-dogmatic and non-interventionist approach reflected in each of the estate’s three dozen different labels.

The project is, above all, about artisanal experimentation and sustainability: the vineyards are all worked by hand – from pruning and canopy management to harvest.

White fruit is pressed gently and 100% whole cluster; red grapes are foot stomped and manually punched-down; fermentation is done by wild and/or spontaneous yeasts and bottling is done by gravity. Channing Daughters’ impressive array of labels is rooted in the belief that each moment and each meal deserve a specific wine and that each bottle should be a very specific expression of place and time.

It is largely thanks to Walter, Larry and Christopher that Long Island is developing a reputation as an upcoming wine region, where the Atlantic influence and the well-drained loamy soils provide an interesting terroir for a number of different varieties.

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