L'Enfant Sauvage Chardonnay
⏳ Drinking Window
2021 - 2026
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
roasted chicken, creamy mushroom risotto, seared scallops
✨ Technical Specifications
Named L'Enfant Sauvage, or "The Wild Child," this Chardonnay is a soulful expression of Channing Daughters' low-intervention philosophy. The wine earns its name from its spontaneous fermentation, relying entirely on wild, indigenous yeasts found naturally on the grape skins and within the cellar. Sourced from the estate's sustainably farmed vineyards in Bridgehampton, the fruit benefits from a unique maritime microclimate shaped by the Atlantic Ocean and the Peconic Bay. This cool-climate terroir infuses the wine with a signature saline minerality. To build complexity and a luscious texture, the wine is barrel-fermented and aged in a mix of French and Hungarian oak casks, undergoing full malolactic fermentation and regular lees stirring (bâtonnage) to balance its vibrant, coastal acidity with a creamy, rich mouthfeel.
🍾 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
Chardonnay
🍷 Alcohol By Volume (ABV)
12-13%