Medium gold color; green apple, pineapple, lemon, citrus, poached pear, beeswax, brioche on the nose and palate.
Dry; good acidity; touch of bitterness on the finish; little or no malolactic conversion. Medium body. There are distinctive, dusty, cucumber elements in the mid-palate and finish which, frankly, surprised me. My first response—“what the heck?” But as the wine gained air exposure and my palate adjusted, it grew on me. This definitely is not your oak and butter supermarket chardonnay. This is an interesting chardonnay adventure. Embrace it.
Halcyon is a pure chardonnay play. Grapes sourced from vineyard just down the hill from the Privé estate. Mt. Eden clone fruit, Jory soil (a distinctive Oregon dirt) at 300 feet. Aged in one-third new French oak, one-third in clay amphora, one-third in stainless steel according to the website. The label tells a different story—60% stainless steel, 25% new French oak, 15% amphora. I tend to go with website which can be adjusted after label has gone to the printer. Whatever, a complicated journey to you palate. Aged on the lees for one year with weekly batonnage. 13% ABV
The amphora may give the wine the beeswax and unusual notes. This is a wine some will love and enjoy, while others will go “what was that?” According to the website, the 2021 vintage did not involve the amphora. Sealionne brought in the clay vessels for this 2022 effort. The addition of the clay vessels seems to have added depth and the surprises.
Sealionne sources grapes from both the Walla Walla and Willamette Valley. Sealionne is a Privé Vineyard label. Privé/Sealionne does not own any chardonnay vines, so they source from the Haakon Lenai vineyard owned by Cody Wright. They intend to make this an estate vineyard in the future, but focus now on sourcing from vineyards that are organic, dry-farmed, and sustainable.
Tina and Mark Hammond started Privé Vineyard on beautiful property in 2000. In 2020, Piper Rosales-Underbrink found Privé Vineyard and the Hammonds through mutual friends and she quickly became part of the family. The Hammonds wanted to sell and retire. Piper, with her father, had the resources to buy. And so they did amid the high-water mark of the Covid epidemic.
Today, Piper Rosales-Underbrink is the owner and the winemaker and vineyard steward at Privé and Sealionne. Piper grew up on the family’s beef-cattle ranch in Florida, graduated from a liberal arts college in Vermont (where she captained the volleyball team), decided to give winemaking a fling after graduating, went to California and learned winemaking from the ground up. When she decided wine is what she wanted to do with her life, she took classes at UC-Davis to enhance her skills. And now she owns, runs, and makes wonderful wine. Florida cattle girl makes good in Left Coast vino.
Piper and her partner Ben Stalker founded Sealionne as a second label. The name comes from SeaLyon, a classic pre-World War II wooden boat. Piper’s father had a hobby fixing antique wooden boats with Piper’s help. The website notes: “The brand was conceived by Ben and Piper with family while cruising through our happy place—perched in the cockpit of a 1925 SeaLyon called the Herschel. While drinking wine and feeling the freedom of slicing through the water, we felt compelled to bring this sense of adventure to our wine making journey.”
Sealionne Wines Halcyon Chardonnay, Chehalem Mountains AVA, Willamette Valley 2022 delivers unique chardonnay flavors through a fermentation mix of stainless steel, oak, and amphora. Rich, clean, sustainably farmed fruit. Intriguing mid-palate and finish—including a cucumber element—may please you, may not. This is not same-old same-old. Pair with pork; rich fish—salmon, tuna, cod, mackerel, trout, sardines; poultry; garden salads; vegetarian fare. Cheese—triple-crème cheeses, camembert, brie, sharp cheddar, mild blue cheese, sheep’s milk cheeses. $45