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

Muscat Canelli, Food's Best Friend

Muscat is often overlooked due to it’s off-dry nature. We’re here to tell you to forget what you’ve heard. This wine should be your go to for any dinner party, picnic at the park, charcuterie night, or take-out thai food.

Muscat Canelli is perhaps one of the most delicious grapes to snack on in the entire Vitis Vinifera species. The only grape I’ve ever had that tastes exactly as the wine does, floral, and bursting with sweet perfume. This fun little grape is also very ancient, one of the grapes that most others can trace their lineage back to.

Muscat is a grape variety with many variants of itself as well. Muscat Canelli in particular is a grape named after the town of Canelli (Città di Canelli) in North-East Italy in the larger winemaking region of Piedmont. Rizzo Winery, of course, has Italian heritage, and this grape also can grow in a cooler region than some of the other Muscat variants, making it a no-brainer to be planted as 1 acre of our peaceful vineyard in the Eola-Amity Hills.

A picture from the smoke filled vineyard during the growing season of 2020.

Muscat In The Vineyard

We dry farm our vineyard, meaning we don’t use irrigation. We allow Mother Nature to shower our vineyard with the beautiful Oregon rain, and our soils soak and store the water throughout our growing season. We allow the grapes to grow with minimal intervention and harmful sprays. When we do spray we follow LIVE (Low Impact Viticulture & Enology) principles.

Pair The Wine!

Muscat Canelli pairs incredibly well with picnics. Blue cheese is the first that comes to mind, a blue cheese walnut and pear salad on a warm summer day, or a fancy blue cheese on a baguette topped with a bit of honey, delicious.

Traditionally, off-dry wines pair incredibly well with both their similar flavor profile, something slightly sweet like a fruit tart, cheesecake, or olive oil cake. Also, will pair with complete opposite something spicy like wasabi on sushi, a mild/medium spiced pad thai, or a cashew coconut curry.

For dinner, a poached fish filet with a salsa verde, or a simple lemon pasta with olive oil and red chili flakes.

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

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.

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!