Author Archives: Jamesha Andrews

Channing Daughters Winery

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My friends and I decided to go to the Channing Daughters Winery. It is located at 1927 Scuttlehole Road, which is in the South Hamptons. The drive to the winery took approximately 2 and a half hours. Channing Daughters Winery has a spectacular story about an upside down tree. I will not ruin the story for people who may want to go, but I must say this story shaped there winery and brought them their main logo.

The Channing Daughters Winery has 28 acres of vines, a small winery, and a tasting room. This winery consist of 15 grape varieties. Some of these grape varieties are Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Tocai Friulano, Malvasia, Muscat Ottonel, Ribolla Gialla, Blaufrankisch, Refosco and Lagrein. This winery produces dry white wines, pinks, oranges, and reds. They do everything by hand in small batches. They also stomp their grapes by foot and punch them down by hand. This provides a good tasting quality wine.

During our wine tasting we tasted 2013 Tocai Friulano, 2014 Scutterhole Chardonnay, 2014 Sauvignon, 2012 Brick Kiln Chardonnay, 2013 Vino Bianco, Over & Over- variation 8, and VerVino Vermouth variation-5. Two wines that grabbed my attention the 2013 Tocai Fruilano and the VerVino Vermouth variation-5. 2013 Tocai Friulano is a delicious white wine that is harvested by hand. This wine was fermented in 60 percent stainless steel barrels and 40 percent French and Slovenian oak for 12 months. I liked this particular wine because it had a great aroma and taste of green apples, grapefruit, pears, and a little bit of spice. I also liked it because it had a medium body, great acidity, and very crisp. This wine would pair nicely with a light citrus salad or nicely grilled salmon with risotto. On the other hand, VerVino Vermouth is a fortified wine. There are six different variations of this wine. These wines are mixed with local botanicals. This is very full bodied. It taste almost velvety and thick like a gravy. This is because it includes botanicals such as basil, dill, lemon balm, lemon verbena and more; which makes this wine a great selection to cook with.

Channing Daughters Wine personnel was excellent! Although he was the only person giving wine tastings, he did an amazing job. He was in charge of preparing wine tastings, providing information and details to the customers, and showing a good time. His service was what I initially expected and it was a pleasure having him as a host. Even though they had certain wines for us to taste, we had the chance to taste more because he acknowledged the fact we were college students. Overall, I really enjoyed this trip because I was surrounded by great friends and the day was well spent. Going to this winery taught me a lot and made me want to enhance my knowledge as a wine professional.

Upside down tree logo

Upside down tree logo

Wine Tasting area

Wine Tasting area

Wine tasting list

Wine tasting list

 

The truth is in the bottle

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My classmates/friends and I visited Crush Wines and Spirits located on 153 East 57th street. We had quite an interesting journey from start to finish. For starters, Cindy had called the wine shop in advance, the day before, and made a reservation with a manager to get a tour and to be able to ask questions. Unfortunately, when we arrived the next day, it was a totally different story. When we walked into the wine shop, we were very amazed at all of the wine selections on the wall and at all of the wines we had covered in wine class. We then began to talk to the cashier about having a reservation and she exclaimed that the store was super understaffed and we can email them any questions we might have. Instead of leaving right away, we decided to look around, and as we did this we talked about how frustrated we were. Veronica Stoler, the manager, overheard us and asked us what was wrong and that she would be pleased to help us with any questions we may have.

After all of the mishaps we encountered, it turned out to be a lovely experience. We learned that they mostly sell vintage French wines. To better understand their wine store and selection of wines we asked a few specific questions. Such as:

  1. What are your most popular wines or trends you see?
  • Pinot Grigio, Prosecco, Sparkling white wine, and spirits ( mostly cognac- Louis XIII)

2. Do you have more old world wine or new world wine?

  • More old world French wine

3. Why are some of your wines at a lower or discounted price? In what moths do you               sell the most wine?

  • Wines are lower or discounted because if the store wants to sell a bottle of wine for a cheaper price they buy a bulk of wine. Or it could mean something happened to the wine or it has been discontinued. They sell the most wines in OND which is October, November, and December.

We then asked her the question, at what temperature is it best to store wine or an opened bottle of wine? This is where the real tour began. She then took us into their cellar located inside of the wine shop. She showed us that the temperature is supposed to be between 50 and 57 degrees. She also showed us that the floor was made out of rubber, so that the vibrations do not mess with the cork. We also learned that the bottles lay flat, so that the cork in the wine can stay moist. By the way she hated the word “moist”.

Overall, I can say that my friends and I had a great experience and that we left the wine shop more knowledgeable about wine.

The front of Crush Wines and Spirits

The front of Crush Wines and Spirits

Spirits Section

                           Spirits Section

Loire Valley, Sancerre, and Sauvignon Blanc

Loire Valley, Sancerre, and Sauvignon Blanc

Bordeaux, Cabernet Sauvgnion, and Merlot

Bordeaux, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot