Ryan Seal of Sigillo Cellars
After college, Ryan Seal owned and operated a coffee business, and eventually spent 20 years selling medical devices. In 2005, his golf foursome started making wine in a garage to help one of the four learn about winemaking. That garage project became Sigillo Cellars in 2009, and they sold their first commercial wines the following year. Sigillo is an appropriate name for their winery, because it means seal in Italian. Ryan had a friend who offered them winemaking space in a huge old body shop in Snoqualmie, which became the winery and tasting room in 2010. Snoqualmie is an old logging town with a charming historic block, and the oldest continually operating train depot in the US. You can still take the train to North Bend and to the top of Snoqualmie Falls.
Sigillo Cellars’ tag line is “Don’t taste wine, experience it.” Today the winery has tasting venues that allow visitors to do just that. In 2014, the Sigillo tasting room in Snoqualmie moved to the historic Sunset Theatre building. Built in 1919 to be a silent movie theatre, the Sunset building has housed many other things since that time. When the leaves fall from the trees, you can see Mt. Si from the back deck. In 2019, Sigillo opened a second tasting room in the historic Lakeside School building on the south side of Lake Chelan. The rooftop deck offers stunning views of Lake Chelan, and the inside walls are covered with historical information about the school and the area. Both venues offer food, live music, and beautiful views to experience along with Ryan’s roughly 30 wines. There is a wine here for every palate, with many in the Bordeaux and Rhone styles.
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