Dorn & Blau
⏳ Drinking Window
Typically best enjoyed within 1–5 years of vintage release to appreciate its fresh, energetic fruit profile.
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
charcuterie boards, roasted duck, grilled pork chops
✨ Technical Specifications
Channing Daughters' Dorn & Blau is a vibrant and imaginative red blend that showcases the winery's pioneering spirit on Long Island's South Fork. By combining Dornfelder and Blaufr$nkisch (Lemberger)—two cool-climate European varieties that are highly unusual for North America—this bottling challenges traditional regional expectations. Grown in the glacial, silt-loam soils of Bridgehampton under maritime conditions, the grapes yield a wine with a remarkably deep, ink-like color but a surprisingly light-to-medium body. Winemaker Christopher Tracy employs low-intervention techniques, including wild yeast fermentation and aging in neutral oak, to preserve the wine's crunchy blue fruit, wild berry notes, and signature cracked black pepper spice.
🍾 About the Producer
Founded by Walter Channing with initial vineyard plantings dating back to 1982 in Bridgehampton on Long Island's South Fork, Channing Daughters Winery stands as one of New York's most inventive and boundary-pushing artisanal producers. Guided by partner and winemaker Christopher Tracy alongside partner Larry Perrine, the estate champions low-intervention, sustainable viticulture across its distinctive maritime terroir. The winery is celebrated for its remarkably diverse and adventurous portfolio encompassing more than two dozen grape varieties, ranging from skin-contact orange wines like Meditazione and complex field blends like Mosaico to expressive single-vineyard expressions such as L'Enfant Sauvage Chardonnay and Scuttlehole Chardonnay. Through experimental fermentations, pet-nats, and traditional method sparklers, Channing Daughters continues to showcase the dynamic potential and saline elegance of East End winemaking.
🍇 Grape Varieties
Dornfelder, Blaufr$nkisch