Rizzo's Spotlight: 2011 Estate Pinot Noir

If you read our last blog post, you’d understand a little better why we love cellaring and aging our wine for you, releasing the wines for sale when we feel they’re truly ready. We cellar our wines with patience and love, so you can skip straight to the fun part, drinking it! There is a unique flavor experience we are able to achieve with this extra time that goes a long way, this is especially the case with our 2011 Estate Pinot Noir.

A candid photo of our 2011 Estate Pinot Noir in the wild

A Cold Vintage Gave Way To Uncertainty

The harvest of 2011 was exceptionally cool in comparison to the years surrounding it. This gave the fruit much more acid development than our palates were used to for Oregon Pinot Noir, resulting in what many classified as a “lean” year. You could find 2011’s dumped, put on sale, and forgotten about. Written off as something unnoteworthy. Something that makes wine age-worthy is a harmony between the acid, fruit, and tannin. Without that harmony, it weighs the scale too far in one direction and won’t create something profound over time. Though many felt like the 2011 vintage was exactly that, the acid outweighing all and tipping the scale in a wholly wrong direction for the typical high-quality wines we were seeing come out of the Willamette Valley, something only a few producers gave in to was trust.

We trusted the fruit that wanted to shine underneath all of the powerful acidity. Those brilliant flavors were there but were currently being overshadowed. Knowing that we made a high-quality wine from the get-go, we wanted to give the 2011 Estate Pinot Noir a fighting chance to show us what it was all about. This meant laying it down to rest for almost a decade.

All of Oregon’s beauty in one photograph, nature in the scenery and Oregon’s bounty in the bottle.

A Decade Of Time Gave Us Decadence

They say patience is a virtue, and when it comes to our 2011 Estate Pinot Noir, they are definitely right. All that time spent in the bottle did not go to waste. Throughout the years the acidity began to settle down and take backstage, while new flavors were being thrust into the spotlight. With an initial aroma of caramelized sugar, like the top of a freshly roasted crème brûlée the warmth that’s developed envelops you. The acid still shows in aromas of ripe cherry. Flavors of raspberries, clove, and rose petals delight the palate. With silky tannins and a delicate acidity on the finish. The depth of flavor in this wine feel like a tale as old as time.

Print this image out and impress your friends with your vintage knowledge as you sip our beautiful wine.

Rizzo Winery's 2011 Pinot Noir Rosé

The world has come a long way from the days of White Zinfandel in the 1980’s, since then we’ve seen a resurgence of Rosé wines. Now, it seems, there is a Rosé for every occasion, with every flavor profile, and in every pink hue imaginable. Yes, normally Rosé is from the newest vintage filled with youth and optimism, but 2011 was an interesting vintage here in the Willamette Valley. We found that with all of the greatest things in life there is patience that lies beneath the surface. Pinot Noir across the valley are tasting the best they’ve ever been from 2011 and even the Rosé’s needed this time to develop what would become delicious signature flavors.

A soft salmon hue of beauty in our 2011 Pinot Noir Rosé.

A printable tasting note to read as you sip and swirl your beautiful rosé.

Learn all about weather from the 2011 vintage and the journey of the grape to make the wine!