08/06/2025
💫💛💫 Our deepest thanks to and for recognizing 2023 Helen Chardonnay with a score of 96 points and 2023 Phoebe Chardonnay with a score of 97 points!!
🌟Cheers!🌟
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Crowley Helen Chardonnay 2023
Decanter 96 points
Drinking Window: 2025 - 2038
Tasted by: Clive Pursehouse
(at Seattle, Washington, 6 May 2025)
Both brilliant Chardonnays from Crowley come from The Four Winds Vineyard, in the foothills of the Coast Range in the McMinnville appellation. This wine is 100% Draper Clone, to the Wente make up of the Phoebe. Both wines are made differently; the Helen sees 11 months in barrel before going to tank for another 7 months. It shows a real edginess, electric and lively. Aromatics of freshly cut lemon, dried mint leaf and an exuberance of seaspray minerality. The palate reflects this spry, vibrant character with lemon beebalm, salted lemon wedge, and lime zest, which stay crisp and bright but with ample weight—a phenomenal Chardonnay.
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Crowley Phoebe Chardonnay 2023
Decanter 97 points
Drinking Window: 2025 - 2040
Tasted by: Clive Pursehouse
(at Seattle, Washington, 20 May 2025)
Decidely one of Oregon's masters of Chardonnay, the Phoebe bottling from Four Winds comes from an old vine Wente clone planted on its own roots in 1993. Winemaker Tyson Crowley has taken the oxidative, ‘Black Chardonnay ’approach. He uses puncheon and barrique on this wine, with 100% new oak on the 2023 Phoebe. It spent 18 months on heavy lees with just about no stirring. Brilliant and soaring with rounded beauty, lemon meringue pie has rich, honeyed notes of peach and grilled pineapple. There is bountiful depth and complexity on the nose. The palate is just as enticing, mineral saline notes mingle with deep ripe mangoes, peach ring candies and a stunningly fresh green mangoes finishing with sweet lemon curd. Nearly as brilliant as the 2022 vintage. Huzzah.
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