MILLERTON — A charity wine tasting last Thursday, Oct. 29, raised $1,700 for a local boy who is in need of a life-saving kidney transplant.
Millerton Wine & Spirits proprietor Chris Jeans organized the tasting at Pasture Kitchen on Route 44 along with the restaurant’s owner, Austin Cornell. All ticket proceeds from the event benefitted the family of Crew Slater, a 5-year-old boy in need of a kidney transplant to survive congenital kidney disease.
Jeans said he was inspired to get involved in supporting the Slater family after reading reports of a charity motorcycle ride in September that he missed due to a family vacation. He said helping take care of community members — especially children — is an important part of what makes Millerton special.
“It’s all about the children,” Jeans said. “And good wine.”
The wine tasting kicked off at 6 p.m. on Thursday. Jeans had a table set up along Pasture Kitchen’s front wall featuring a mix of wines from Spain, Italy, France and California. Tasters got a chance to sample an increasingly dark and increasingly dry selection of natural and organic wines, a category of wine that Jeans said is increasingly popular but still controversial among wine drinkers.
Cassidey Slater, Crew’s mother, said the event was a first for her and a rewarding experience.
“We’ve never done a wine tasting or anything before, but we met a lot of great people,” Slater said. “We were very happy with the turnout.”
Slater said he has been struggling with multiple congenital issues since birth, including improperly functioning kidneys, bladder and colon.
Crew underwent his first surgery at just days old in August 2020. In the nearly six years since, he has endured countless visits to hospitals in Albany and Boston and multiple surgeries to treat his medical conditions.
Crew is currently undergoing treatment to prepare him for a desperately needed kidney transplant. Cassidey said he has reached stage 4 kidney disease, currently functioning at just 20% capacity of a set of healthy kidneys. Stage 5 of the disease is total kidney failure.
Slater said she has yet to hear if doctors have identified a kidney donor for Crew.
Jeans said he hopes to hold another event at Pasture Kitchen in the spring, but didn’t have complete details ready.
Bahr’s new space occupies about a quarter of a historic dairy barn in the hamlet center.Photo by Graham Corrigan 
Bahr shares her new space with fellow makers Veronica Tyson-Strait and J.Y. Lym. Photo by Graham Corrigan 
A group of English white cattle graze a pasture off of Downey Road in Millerton. The cattle are contained using “virtual fencing” technology that uses GPS-enabled electric collars rather than physical barriers.Photo by Nathan Miller
Heather Kading feeds a black angus cow at the former Kaplan dairy farm along Route 22 south of Millerton. Around the cow’s neck is a Nofence GPS-enabled collar.Photo by Nathan Miller
