Viognier In The Spring

Viognier is the perfect in between of Chardonnay, where it has a similar full and lush body, and Riesling, where it contains similar aromatics, like peach, pear, and violet. The Willamette Valley had many plantings of these two grape varieties already, and at Rizzo, we like to be a little different.

Viognier, a white grape originating from France’s warm Rhône Valley, is best known for being the only grape permitted in Condrieu. If you know the Willamette Valley, you’d know that it’s not nearly as warm as the Rhône Valley, but you would also know that this beautiful valley of ours has hundreds of different microclimates. One of which can be found in the tip top of our vineyard, where the sun shines the most, allowing for our 1 acre of Viognier to be bathed in warmth most days in the growing season. Similar to the strong Mistral winds that blow through the Rhône Valley, Rizzo is in the Eola-Amity Hills which is known for the Van Duzer winds that breeze through the Cascade and Coastal Mountain Ranges.

Rizzo’s 2015 Viognier Tasting Notes

Our Viognier is pale-lemon in hue, with aromatic notes of citrus rind, orange blossom and soft hay, which fill the glass. Served best lightly chilled, the fresh acidity and notes of bright green-apple, apricot kernel, and young stone-fruit balance invitingly with warm notes of vanilla and honeyed hazelnut. 

Pair our Viognier

Pair our Viognier with picnics in the park: add a mild cheddar or a honey goat cheese, an herb forward salad, add a sliced granny smith apple to the mix and try to find the flavor notes in the wine!

Pair our Viognier with dinner: complimenting crab cakes as an appetizer followed by a creamy pasta dish.

Pair our Viognier with sunshine: It’s delicious on the porch with friends on a warm summer day. No snacks necessary.

This delicious Viognier retails for $20

If you’re a club member it’s $16 / $15 / $14 depending on your wine club level.

The Holiday Gift Guide Is Here!

Tis the season for shopping for all the people you love! Lucky for you, we’ve got the gift guide you need to give the perfect gift set for all the wine lovers in your life.

For The Trendy One

The New Vintage Bundle

This gift set is perfect for the trend-setter in your life. We just released our 2018 Chardonnay, 2018 Pinot Noir and the fan favorite 2019 Rosé. The 2018 Chardonnay is tropical and bright, while the 2018 Pinot Noir is a classic example of how beautiful Willamette Valley Pinot Noir can truly be. Our 2019 Rosé is what we lovingly call our Winter Rosé, filled with a delicious holiday spice flavor profile that pairs perfectly with a warm fire.

For The White Wine Lover

The White Wine Bundle

Move aside everything you thought you knew about white wine. Each of these wines brings a unique flavor to the party. The 2018 Chardonnay isn’t like your classic oaky, butter bomb of chardonnay. This wine is fleshy, bright, and punchy with tropical fruits that settle into a flavor like a fruity cheesecake. Our 2015 Viognier is made from Viognier grown on our Estate. This wine is dry, but comforting with flavors of apricot, nectarine and some honeyed hazelnut. Even the 2015 Muscat Canelli isn’t what you expect. It’s off-dry, so it does have some subtle sweetness that lends itself to a honey flavor, lychee with white blossoms.

For The Extravagant One

The Luxury Bundle

This is an impressive gift for anyone who enjoys the finer things in life. Two of the most extravagant wines Rizzo Winery has ever made, both of these wines are rich with flavor, and texture. Though the name Cuvee means blend, this wine is made entirely from Cabernet Sauvignon, from two different vineyards. Flavors of coconut soufflé, light vanilla and a depth of blackberry. Our 2012 Petit Verdot is silky and sultry. Both of these wines are made from grapes grown out of ancient ash that settled in Oregon’s Columbia Valley from when Mt. Mazuma exploded and created Crater Lake.

For The Bold & Beautiful

The Bold Red Wine Bundle

All three of these wines are bold, spicy, sultry, and demand attention. Do you have someone in your life like that? If you do, these are the perfect wines for them! Our 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon has a beautiful combination of black cherry, black pepper, and mint that will make your mouth water in delight. It recently won a gold medal at Sip’s Best of Northwest awards. Another gold medal winner is our 2013 Tempranillo, a perfect wine for the Thanksgiving table, a wine with flavors similar to cranberry sauce in the most delicious way. To round off this perfect trio is our 2013 Syrah, a wine with subtle vanilla, spiced walnut and subtle sage.

We have so much more to offer in our Tasting Room! Come visit us every weekend 11-5 PM.

Chardonnay: Zesty & Sharp

Our 2017 Chardonnay is nothing like you’ve ever had before, made entirely from glass, the flavors of oak and cream though classic for Chardonnay are unfound in this one! High in acid, thirst quenching and delicious.

Rizzo’s 2017 Chardonnay

Not your typical Chardonnay, this wine was made entirely in glass, hidden from the light to ensure the potency of flavors would shine. There is an inviting pale lemon hue to remind you of a classic Summer day. On the nose you’ll find a hint of tropical fruit, banana with a cream coating like a candy. You’ll find a sharpness on the nose, inviting you to taste the refreshing fresh squeezed lime juice qualities of the wine’s body. In the glass, you’ll also find granny smith apple, some delicate honeysuckle, and a creamy finish.

Come Visit Us!

Can’t you see yourself here? Sipping glasses of cold chardonnay while you chat with your friends and soak in our country view. We are open for Summer Fridays until August 30th, come start your weekend right on Fridays from 4-7 PM and Saturday & Sunday from 11-4 PM!

Reservations are encouraged, but not required. You can make one here

Originally $20 a bottle

this Chardonnay is our Monthly Tasting Room special

Now Only $16.50

That means if you’re a Platinum Club Member your price is $11.55

Summer Is Here!

To celebrate the season we’ve got a special flight and new hours!

To us, Summer means getting off early and hitting the happy hour! At Rizzo, happy hours are here all summer long on Fridays from 3 to 7 PM. Reservations are encouraged as we have a small space, but they’re not required. We understand that some things are spontaneous, and we hope you spontaneously decide to visit our Estate Tasting Room!

While tasting through our Summer Breeze flight you’ll feel as free as that bird of prey hunting the sky in the photo above. It begins with our bright 2017 Chardonnay, made entirely in glass. This keeps the flavors fresh and authentic to Chardonnay itself. To continue keeping your cool through the flight is our delicious 2015 Viognier made from grapes on our estate! A heavier, creamy mouthfeel with this white wine gives us a different perspective from the Chardonnay before and gives us the best of both worlds. Our 2019 Pinot Noir Rosé is darker than most rosé’s, a little more time with the skins increases the color in the wine, but also the flavor complexity! This wine is perfect if you want to bridge the gap between rosé and red wine, or to convert your red wine loving friend to the rosé side. To finish off the flight we have our 2014 Carménère, a silky and spicy red wine that pairs perfectly with vegetables right off the BBQ!

Our Estate Tasting Room is Open

Friday 3-7 PM, Saturday and Sunday 11-4 PM

Our 2015 Pinot Noir Is A Winner Baby!

We entered our 2015 Pinot Noir to the 2021 Sommeliers Choice Awards and we won gold!

2015 Pinot Noir Tasting Notes

2015 was a warm vintage in Eola-Amity Hills, this gave our Pinot Noir a darker color. As the dark ruby wine swirls in the glass, it releases aromas of sour gummy candy, strawberry juice, orange rind, and rhubarb pie. As the wine opens, it lends us earthy aromas of sweet and subtle rosemary. On the tongue, there’s a buzz from the alcohol, followed by an acidity that creates tart cherry flavors as it mingles in your mouth. A silky tannin, with flavors of ripe strawberries and a fruitiness that reminds us of summertime watermelon.

Sommeliers Choice Awards

The goal for the Sommeliers Choice Awards is to provide a valuable benchmark for which wines would make the best addition to a wine list. The judges for the Sommeliers Choice Awards are top sommeliers at restaurants, bars, pubs, and clubs in the United States. They taste the submitted wines and judge them based on how well they will pair with food items, their versatility, typicity, value, quality, and package.

Carménère: Once Lost, Now Found

Carménère is a luscious, silky red wine with flavors of ripe raspberries, red cherries, green peppercorn and green bell pepper. A grape originally from Bordeaux, now mostly grown in Chile, and has been found in the beautiful Oregon Columbia Valley.

Our Carménère is exclusive to the Tasting Room, come visit us, taste it and take some home!

Carménère has a very interesting history, starting during the 16th century. Under Spanish rule, Chile was importing that red liquid gold all the way from Europe. Since the wine was traveling such far distances, it was becoming oxidized in the barrels on the ships and wasn’t at the quality they wanted, so they started making their own. As the Chilean wine industry started booming, wealthy landowners began importing vines from France, mostly from Burgundy.

As the wine industry in Chile kept growing, Carménère wasn’t being bottled, it was mostly Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Malbec. Now with science advancing, there were some differences amongst the Merlot vines in vineyards. There were some vineyards of Merlot that were ripening consistently later than their neighbor Merlot vines. In 1994 scientists decided to test the DNA of these vines, only to discover that instead of Merlot it was Carménère!

Now, this was a very exciting discovery because during WW2 the majority of France’s vineyards were destroyed both by war, but also by Phylloxera, a vine-eating disease brought over by Americans. During this time, Carménère was lost. Its vineyards in France completely wiped out, and when France went looking for vines to restart their own vineyards, Carménère was thought to be nowhere else in the entire world. When they discovered it was in Chile, the world rejoiced that this unique cousin of Cabernet Sauvignon was found once again.

Our 2014 Carménère has a beautiful body, coating your mouth with ease while still easy to sip enough to drink without food. This wine has flavors of ripe raspberries, jalepeño pepper, black peppercorns, and ripe black cherry. Only available in our Tasting Room, this wine is featured on our Bold & Beautiful flight but also is our May special.

For May our 2014 Carménère is only $25 a bottle,

originally $36!

Tasting Room Menu!

Rizzo Winery’s Estate Tasting Room opened the first weekend in April 2021, below is our current Tasting Room menu.

Celebrating Mali For International Women's Day!

Mali Lubash does it all, a truly remarkable woman that we are so lucky to have on our team. She is the Director of Operations here at Rizzo Winery, she makes the wine with David Rizzo, takes all of those stunning photographs you see on our social media, she is constantly teaching us everything about wine with her WSET 3 certificate, and even is taking our vineyard to Biodynamic places. Everyday it seems that there is truly nothing she can’t do.

We celebrate her talents, her drive, her intelligence, and her enthusiasm every day, but today being International Women’s Day we wanted to share with the world how important our leading lady is! Thank you for everything you do Mali, you’re a rockstar.

Rizzo's Spotlight: Viognier

It is somewhat unusual to find Viognier vines planted on the slopes of Oregon’s famed Willamette Valley. This is exactly why we planted them, we wanted to challenge our climate and make wines that no one else was. We may be biased, but if you tasted this wine, we’re fairly certain you’d agree that this wine is a drop everything, purchase right now, must-have.

Viognier in the sky

Viognier has its origins, like most other ancient grapes. Originating in present day Croatia and then taken to the Rhône Valley in what is now France during the Roman Empire. The Rhône is where Viognier found it’s light alongside Syrah. Viognier can have trouble ripening which is why we have it planted at the top of our slope, to ensure it gets the maximum amount of sunlight possible.

What is debatably most delicious about Viognier is that in the glass you’ll receive intense floral aromas and flavors like Riesling or Muscat, yet we ferment our Viognier wines completely dry. This grape can also develop really beautiful texture, which gives those Chardonnay drinkers something they’ve been looking for minus the intense flavors of oak and butter. This wine exudes sunshine, and is a perfect pairing for those early days in spring when the sun is out but the weather has a fresh crispness to it.

Viognier on the beach

Rosé For Winter? Groundbreaking.

Most people when thinking of Rosé think of the beautiful of shades of pink this wonderful wine comes in, they think of it chilled to perfection and drank in the summer sun. Yes, when bodies of water call out to you, many exercise the “Rosé all day” state of mind. At Rizzo, we did something a little different. We made a Rosé that will invoke that same mindset, with no sunshine involved at all.

Meet the 2019 Pinot Noir Rosé. Made from the dry-farmed Pinot Noir vines that live on our Estate, this Rosé is both fresh and complex. The hue of this wine may be a bit darker than you’re used to, but it’s always in season to dabble with the dark side.

This wine has flavors of black pepper and watermelon, with whispers of strawberry Jell-O on the nose. This wine is bordering Beaujolais-style or a bottle of red wine with the ability to drink well chilled, but it’s that zing of acidity that reminds us that this is indeed a Rosé. Rizzo’s Rosé is perfect for those in-between Winter days, where it’s sunny but blisteringly cold, and pairs perfectly with a crackling fire.

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's Wine Cellar

At Rizzo Winery, we handcraft every bottle of wine with the utmost care. Many of our current vintages, don’t seem so current, since they’re often over 5 years old. Many of you must wonder, why age them for so long?

A little wine library, full of books and wines of age & potential

Of course, there are many opinions and advice on how long wines can age, but we have a deep understanding of our wines (we did make them, after all). What we have found, is that the main factor for a wine’s ability to age is the harmony between the different flavor components right off the bat. If there’s a good tannic structure, high acidity, and budding flavors when they’re young, then leaving the wine to age in the bottle allows for the marriage of these components. Over time the tannins will soften and the high acidity will mellow but will still allow the wine to taste fresh and filled with youth when you pull out the cork many years later. One of the main reasons we allow our wines to age is their flavors mature, gaining complexity and depth. Ripe and juicy fruit flavors can become earthy, opulent, and taste sweeter with time in the bottle.

The simple answer to why we age them before we offer them to you all is that we prefer them this way. We are experts in temptation and we think you deserve cellar wines without the hassle of aging them yourself.

We Reflect On 2020

This year has been incredibly difficult for many, with many lives lost due to the coronavirus pandemic, wonderful restaurants and bars permanently shutting their doors after feeding hungry mouths for decades, and the wine industry shifting to new heights in an attempt to survive. At Rizzo Winery, we try to be thankful whenever we can and remember that there is always a rainbow at the end of a storm.

The Rainbow of 2021 here to save our sanity.

This year was a year of big changes for our little winery. We revamped our website and got with the times, getting an easier to navigate online shop just in time for that to be the only way to purchase our wines when the world shut its doors. We decided that you all needed to see the beauty that we are fortunately graced with every day at our estate, even when you couldn’t visit, and made an Instagram account to post these photos to. We started sending you all emails, some educational, some showcasing specific wines, and some all about the deals & discounts. Overall, this year we decided to take flight and connect with you all as best we could.

A very literal representation of us about to take flight.

We wanted to be there for you this year because the world turned upside down and we realized we all needed more from each other. Restructuring our wine club allowed us to give back to those who are there for us as our biggest fans. We gave our members more benefits, more complimentary wine tastings, and access to fun events when the fun can be had again. We reflected on where we had been lacking and decided to fully dedicate ourselves to improve. We invested in our tasting room and made it into a beautiful space where you’d want to spend the cold afternoon inside, or the warm afternoon outside, either way admiring our beautiful views when the world sees a bit of normality again. We believe in hospitality, and soon we will be able to host you all with open arms, glasses of wine, and charcuterie galore.

Our Wine Club Shipments ready for pick-up with their cute new sticker name tags and logo’d sides.

Overall, we’d like to say thank you. Thank you for making it through this year with us, we toast to you, as you are what allows us to keep making our delicious wines that are meant to be shared.

Until we can share again, cheers!

Team Rizzo

Holiday Season At Rizzo Winery!

The holidays have arrived at Rizzo Winery! We have curated some wonderful gift sets at great discounts for you to gift those loved ones that might need a little extra wine this year.

The Rizzo Winery Estate Sampler is an excellent choice for a gift to any wine lover! This gift set covers all the wine bases; red wine, white wine, rosé and even an off-dry white. While tasting through the different styles of wine we make at Rizzo Winery, you’ll also be tasting the essence of our Estate. We have 9 acres of vineyards, in the windy Eola-Amity Hills, where Pinot Noir, Muscat, and Viognier grow harmoniously together. These vineyards are sustainably dry-farmed and follow organic growing principles. The windy vineyard site also allows for these vines to be naturally more disease-resistant.

This Gift Set is straight from our Cellar! The Library Vintage Set showcases how truly magical a beautifully-aged Pinot Noir can become. As Oregon Pinot Noir ages the fruit flavors develop from fresh to earthy, dried and jammy. With these wines each coming from a unique and outstanding vintage, they all have a story to tell.The year 2006, was the inaugural year of the Eola-Amity Hills AVA. A warm and dry summer, a near perfect vintage was the way to celebrate. In 2008, Mother Nature was rewarding with wide temperature swings allowing the fruit to develop balance between richness and depth. An abundance of clusters on the vines allowed for us to be specific and focused on which would create the most outstanding wine. This gift set allows you to take a journey through time, tasting these various years and reminisce on old times.

Though in Willamette Valley, Pinot Noir is king, we often yearn for something a bit bolder. We are so lucky being so close to Oregon’s Columbia Valley, where the sunshine never fades and grapes can ripen to their heart’s content. Our Big Bold Sampler showcases another side to David Rizzo’s winemaking expertise, silky and powerful red wines. These wines are delicious, delivering dark fruit flavors, effortlessly dancing around flavors of vanilla, clove and nutmeg, the flavors of oak. These wines are from our cellar where they have had years to create harmony in the bottle. Showcasing the 2012 Zinfandel, 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon, and 2012 Petit Verdot, this holiday sampler is luxurious and perfect for the red wine lover in your life.

At Rizzo Winery we pride ourselves on being The Winemakers Wine, allowing David Rizzo full artistic control of his passionate process. A natural gift, David uses his winemaking tools like paintbrushes on canvas. The Winemakers Sampler is a complete expression of his repertoire. Pairing his masterpiece, Cabernet Sauvignon, with his Estate Pinot Noir and stunning fan favorite the Carménère*. Each bringing a different flavor profile, from the rich and bold Cabernet Sauvignon to the lighter, more finessed, Pinot Noir, to the silky and spicy Carménère.

*For online sales of this gift set we have replaced the Carménère with the Tempranillo.

Rizzo's Spotlight: Cabernet Sauvignon!

Cabernet Sauvignon is the wine that sparked joy in David Rizzo’s heart, and gave him the “wine bug". That spark is one that many wine lovers know and understand well, as it happens to all of us. David was visiting California in the early 90’s and wine tasting with some friends. Back then, the wine industry was a bit smaller on the West Coast, the fire burning passion and love of wine that exists strong at Rizzo Winery, was alive and well in every single tasting room. As David tasted a beautiful, lush, Cabernet, the one pouring for him was telling him all about what went into the liquid that filled the glass in his hand. As David asked questions about the winemaking practices that went into the wine, a lightbulb went off in his head saying “I can do that” and so it began.

Cabernet Sauvignon, a tale as old as time.

Tasting wine with a spread of the tasting characteristics typical of Cabernet Sauvignon.

Cabernet Sauvignon typically has characteristics (that you’ll see on the board above) of red or black cherries, blackberries, fig, red plums, ripe strawberries, bell pepper, mint, and cedar. Holding the wine above a white tablecloth will help you see the color of the wine, at it’s best.

Celebrate The Seasonal Change

It’s still quite warm in Oregon, so we’re holding on to every last drop of summer we can. This recipe for Summer Bruschetta helps us deny that summer is coming to an end. Whip up a batch of our Summer Bruschetta, chill a bottle of our Muscat Canelli, and soak up some September sunshine!

Yum! We love enjoying fresh, local produce.

Print these out, or read ahead of time to impress your friends with all your flavor profile knowledge!

Rizzo Winery's 2008 Pinot Noir

The 2008 vintage was a knockout for the Willamette Valley. It had everything vintners love, naturally lower yields, a bit of rain towards harvest that didn’t dilute the grapes but hydrated them instead, and a range of temperatures that allow for interesting acidity and flavors to develop all summer long. A vintage that swept the valley and sold out to be stored in wine cellars all over the world. Luckily for you all, we love sharing and have brought this bottled beauty out of our cellar for you to enjoy the luxury of drinking perfectly aged Pinot Noir.

A stunning appearance of our 2008 Pinot Noir.

The luxury of a well aged Pinot Noir, tasting incredible right from the cellar.

An outstanding vintage, a pretty much sold out everywhere vintage, that we have for you!

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!

Rizzo Winery's 2006 Pinot Noir

There is a common misconception about aging Pinot Noir that exists in society, and we’re here to tell you that the age limits that exist are guidelines, not hard fast rules. Aging wine, in any sense is fully dependent on the quality of the wine you’re trying to age. Our wines are of incredible quality, we have cellared these wines because we believed in them, and now we’re drinking the benefits of that. This 2006 Pinot Noir is a delicious and true testament to this belief. Buy a bottle or two, grab a glass and enjoy the luxury of aged Pinot Noir.

Our 2006 Pinot Noir, just as beautiful as ever

Printable tasting note for the 2006 Pinot Noir, read as you sip!

Vintage notes for 2006, a little insight in the grapes journey from bud burst to the bottle you’re drinking from!