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Welcome to Rielle Wines
Rielle Products
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Our Winemaker - Gabriella Gazzano
Our winemaker and co owner, Gabriella Gazzano, worked in various jobs using her chemistry training but was never fulfilled. She had the opportunity to work for a small winery in the Dry Creek Valley running their lab and performing the cellar rat duties. Everything clicked into place. Winemaking utilizes all the senses and she was able to use her background in chemistry to monitor and develop practices to produce sound wines, while using her palate, sense of smell and agricultural background to create truly outstanding wines.
Her training was "hands on" she did all the jobs in the winery, from scrubbing the floors to punching down the fermenting tanks to preparing the final blends for bottling. She even repaired the presses. A career in winemaking is very diverse and demanding, there is a lot of mundane grunt work along with complex chemistry and microbiology and of course the palate to pull it all together.
Rielle Wines is named after our youngest daughter. Both daughters have grown up in the wine industry. Cleaning tanks, running filters and pumps, stirring and topping barrels, doing lab work, sampling the vineyards. It has definitely been a family affair.
Gabriella worked for Fritz Winery making Dry Creek Zinfandels, Russian River Chardonnays, and Sonoma County Sauvignon Blancs and Dry Creek Cabernet Sauvignons.
After 4 years at Fritz she moved over to the Napa Valley and assisted in producing outstanding ultra premium cult status wines for both the Pahlmeyer and Jayson labels, including Napa Valley Merlot, Chardonnay, and the Red (a 5 varietal Bordeaux Blend). Four years later she was back in the Dry Creek Valley as Vice President, Director of Winemaking for Pezzi King Vineyards where she produced (at last count) 15 gold and 14 silver medal winning wines. These included Burgundian style Russian River Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, along with Dry Creek Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah and Sauvignon Blanc.
Her dream has always been to start her own winery.
Gabriella's father emigrated from Italy to Northern California and brought a highly developed palate and knowledge of fine food and wine. Gabriella's childhood home revolved around the kitchen, her mother cooked all day preparing sauces, pastas, frittatas.... Her father imported parmesan cheese, olive oil, flour, Arborio rice, salami and prosciutto directly from Italy. Of course her family always enjoyed wine with their meals. She grew up smelling, tasting, cooking, her mother even sewed their clothing and knit their sweaters, examining and fastidiously selecting fabrics and yarns with the color and texture she wanted, many of which were imported from France and Italy.
We have been blessed to live in Sonoma County in the heart of the wine country. Our children have grown up in the "California Lifestyle"; vegetables and fruit, organically grown, fresh from our gardens. Fresh eggs from our small flock of laying hens. Our orchards produce apples, pears, plums, figs, olives and a wide variety of citrus. Artisan cheeses and breads produced by our neighbors. We live twenty minutes from the Pacific Ocean and enjoy fresh seafood.
We have been creating our own infusions to produce a line of liqueurs and fragrances and hope to have them available soon....
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