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Channing Daughters Winery in Bridgehampton. (Facebook photo)

Walter Channing, founder and co-partner at Channing Daughters Winery in Bridgehampton, died March 12 following a long illness, Edible East End has reported. He was 74.

According to a biography on Channing Daughters’ website, he was born and raised in Boston, Mass., and graduated from Harvard College and the Business School. Later, Channing moved to New York City and became interested in “recovering and reworking discarded materials” like the wood from the demolition of Hudson Piers, transforming them into furniture, interior walls and art objects. 

Since 1975, Channing’s work has been shown at venues as local as Louise Himmelfarb Galleries in Southampton and as far away as the Handschin Gallery in Basel, Switzerland.

In a 1986 New York Times article, Channing said he was in the business of “creating interesting investments.” He helped found C.W. Group, a venture capital business that supports “healthcare, biotechnology and managed-care provider service sectors,” according to his biography.

Channing planted his first Chardonnay vines at his Bridgehampton farm in 1982. Since then, Channing Daughters has evolved into an operation that produces a wide assortment of white, red, pink and even orange wines that are served in restaurants as far away as San Diego. The grounds of the Scuttlehole Road winery are decorated with Channing’s sculptures, according to a 2002 New York Times article.

Larry Perrine, Channing Daughters’ other founding partner, told Edible East End that Channing “was a charismatic, wildly talented businessman and artist. A true character.”

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