Channing Daughters' Long Island Ribolla Gialla

Ribolla Gialla isn't a grape variety you find much in the US, but this skin fermented example from Channing Daughters in Long Island is a convincing effort.

Every week, Simon selects an orange wine (a white wine made with extended skin contact) that grabbed his attention. View the whole series here.   

Christopher Tracy is not a man who does things by halves. Inspired by Gravner, Radikon and Movia, he decided that skin maceration could work as a technique at Channing Daughters winery in Long Island. But he doesn't just tinker with one experimental wine in this style - there are no less than eight!

Long Island has risen to prominence as a good place to make Bordeaux blends - the conventional wisdom goes that with its cool climate and marine influence, it must surely be similar to the hallowed swamps of the Medoc and St. Emilion. Tracy has little interest in that comparison, taking his inspiration instead from Northern Italy - so Channing Daughter's vineyards are now full of Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Friulano and, wait for it, Ribolla Gialla.

Tracy's orange wine adventure began in 2004, with the first vinification of "Meditazione", a Friuli-in…