Channing Daughters "Clones" Long Island White Table Wine 2005 *

One hundred forty six cases of pure, hmm...what this is pure of I don't know. I guess that's why they call it clones:

68% chardonnay (tend clones)

19.2% sauvignon blanc

5.6% merlot

3.5% pinot grigio

2% aligote

1.7% gewurztraminer

But it's immediately pleasing, in the way you can't put a finger anywhere near what this wine is you know immediately it's a Long Island white.

Look, I liked it. Ok? But Channing Daughters seems to me they're still trying to figure out an angle on what will work from the East End. Too many question marks here. Maybe too imaginative. It's pure in that it is completely what it is and where it's from, but it falls short of being utterly delicious. I love Channing Daughters when they knock out a pure fruit driven chardonnay, and bone dry sauvignon, an exceptional East End merlot, but sometimes with the whites I'm left wondering what the winemaker was aiming for.

Still, of all the wineries on the East End, Channing Daughters is the avant garde. No doubt about that, and I'd like to see them continue doing what they're doing.