The Wines
As Proprietor Giorgio Furioso was born and raised in Italy and Winemaker Dominique Mahé in Brittany, France, it should come as no surprise that Furioso Vineyards’ ethos of winemaking is firmly and irrevocably rooted in terroir – “a sense of place”. The grapes from each block of our two estate vineyards are fermented and barrel-aged in small lots to maximize our blending options and achieve the highest quality possible, without compromising their unique characteristics. Dominique is fond of saying, “I wish you to taste our vineyards, not our winery.”
We promote the resident yeasts of our estate vineyards to spontaneously direct the fermentation of our wines by using just enough sulfur to keep other unwanted spoilage organisms at bay. After aging for 10 months in French oak barrels, our Pinot Noirs are bottled unfined and unfiltered to maintain their identity and authenticity. We seek to produce wines which are meant to be enjoyed with food – wines of balance and restraint, with lower alcohol and higher acidity.
La Linea Pinot Noir
La Linea – “the line” in proprietor Giorgio Furioso’s native Italian: a blood-line; the line that connects his family as they immigrated from Italy, first to Montreal, Canada and then to Yonkers, New York; the line that took Giorgio from New York, to Ohio, to Washington DC, and thence to Oregon – and now connecting our patrons to our Oregon endeavor.
La Linea Pinot Noir is our flagship wine from the Furioso Vineyard in the Willamette Valley’s Dundee Hills AVA – our Dundee estate. A selection every vintage of our most delicate, finesse-driven barrels, this small production wine showcases the elegance of our mostly own-rooted Pommard clone planted estate vineyard. Unfined, unfiltered, native fermentation – all designed to highlight our light cap management, mild extraction, terroir-driven winemaking style.
L’Altra Pinot Noir
L’Altra – “the other’ in Italian: some of the other barrels produced from our Furioso Vineyard fruit. L’Altra Pinot Noir is by design a bolder, more “masculine” expression of our Dundee Hills AVA estate vineyard. Showcasing the more blue and black-fruited side of the Pinot Noir spectrum, this wine exhibits a firmer structure and more juicy tannins than does its more delicate sister, La Linea. This is our vineyard designate Pinot Noir each vintage.
Unfined, unfiltered, native fermentation – all designed to highlight our light cap management, low sulfur, terroir-driven winemaking style.
Vincenzo Pinot Noir
Growing up in Italy, Montreal, and Yonkers, New York, Giorgio has fond memories of his Papà and Nonno (grandfather), both named Vincenzo, making wine in the cellar for friends and family. These are the two men who inspired him to own a vineyard and make wine, so what better way to toast their memory than to make a limited edition bottling in their honor. Every year we take four of our favorite barrels from the Dundee Hills estate Furioso Vineyard and bottle only 100 cases as a tribute to Papà and Nonno Vincenzo. With more new oak barrels in the cuvée, Vincenzo is a bigger wine, with a bit more structure. When you enjoy this wine, we hope you will raise a glass to your famiglia.
Gina Pinot Noir
Named for Giorgio’s Aunt Gina, a close relative who, along with Giorgio’s mother, gave him a fond appreciation for food and family gatherings. This wine presents the more elegant and delicate side of our newest and second vineyard – crafted using 100% free run juice and minimal new oak.
Unfined, unfiltered, native fermentation – all designed to highlight our light cap management, low sulfur, terroir-driven winemaking style. Like all Furioso wines, low alcohol and higher acidity are our stated desire – to ensure our wines are the perfect partner for great food, company, and conversation.
Pietro Pinot Noir
Pietro was the very first Pinot Noir released from Trovato Vineyard, our second estate vineyard in the Willamette Valley’s famed Yamhill-Carlton AVA. Named for Giorgio’s Zio Pietruccio (Uncle Peter), this Pinot Noir is a blend of nine blocks of Pinot Noir representing as many different different clones, from the classic Pommard and Dijon clones to newly selected clones such as Mt Eden and Swan. After having been handpicked at the optimal balance of maturity, the clusters are destemmed and naturally fermented. The wine is subsequently aged in French barrels (20-25% new) for 10 months before being bottled unfined and unfiltered.
The diversity of Pinot Noir clones used creates a complex wine which is stylistically different from our Dundee Hills AVA Furioso Vineyard wines. Although less than ten miles apart, the Trovato terroir (an old marine sedimentary soil called Willakenzie) is responsible for a more structured wine with predominantly cooking spice, minerality, and dried herb aromatics.
Anna Pinot Noir
Named for Giorgio’s mother, Anna, the grapes for this wine are sourced exclusively from our Trovato Vineyard in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA. Her dedication to Famiglia was ever present in the food, wine, and conversation around her kitchen table. . This small, three-barrel cuvée, is meant to represent the more lush and savory side of our Trovato Vineyard in Yamhill.
Anna is created from a careful selection of barrels in order to produce a small-lot (75 cases), more structured Pinot Noir with a higher proportion of new oak.
La Famiglia Pinot Noir
Our La Famiglia Pinot Noir is created for its namesake – our La Famiglia wine club. We produced this wine for the very first time in 2017 – just a single one-year old French oak barrel of free-run juice from Block 6 of our Dundee Estate. Block 6 consists of a mix of old vine Pinot Noir clones: Pommard, Dijon 113, 114, and 115.
While our club grows and La Famiglia has become a cuvee of two or more barrels, the sentiment remains the same: each vintage we hand select our favorite barrels to bottle as a club exclusive cuvee!
Block 10 Pinot Noir
Our Block 10 at Trovato Vineyard outside Yamhill is a 2-acre vineyard block exclusively planted with the Pommard clone of Pinot Noir. One of the original clones used by the Oregon wine pioneers in the 70’s, Pommard was widely planted in Burgundy and known there for creating wines of distinction and excellence. This clone did not disappoint the winegrowers of the Willamette Valley, which is why it is still a classic clone used today, either as part of a blend or by itself; as is the case with this wine.
We thought it would be interesting for our friends and Famiglia to enjoy this one-on-one experience, and have this unique opportunity to get intimate with a clone that started the international reputation of Oregon Pinot Noir.
Chardonnay
Our Chardonnay fruit comes from Trovato Vineyard, our second estate vineyard, in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA. Gifted with moderate climates and marine sedimentary soils, our Chardonnay consistently delivers notes of citrus, stone fruit, and mineral driven complexity.
Beginning with the release of the 2020 vintage wines, we will have single-vineyard estate Chardonnay from both vineyard sites. Every year, we also over-vintage just a few barrels. This extended lees contact wine, named “Piano Piano”, is a truly special bottling, inviting you to explore all Chardonnay can become with time and patience.
Our Chardonnays are aged in neutral French oak barrels anywhere from 10 to 20 months to enhance the broadness on the palate. Produced with Burgundy in mind, these wines reflect the lower alcohol, higher acidity, terroir-driven style appreciated by both foodies and Francophiles alike.
Piano Piano Chardonnay
Rosé of Pinot Noir
Dry rosé took forever to catch on in the United States, but has been enjoyed for centuries in Europe, especially France, where drinking a glass of chilled rosé after an afternoon of playing pétanque and swimming quickly became the quintessential expression of summer, leisure, and fun. Dry, but with plenty of fruit and structure, the grapes for our rosé are grown on our estate Trovato Vineyard in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA, and are picked a bit early in order to maintain a zippy acidity and moderately low alcohol.
Pale salmon in color and 100% Pinot Noir, our rosé is always ready to kick-off your summer or accompany your favorite fowl at the Holidays. On the palate, its tart flavors are balanced by a delicate texture from the short barrel aging in neutral French oak barriques.
Méthode Champenoise Sparkling
Welcome to our inaugural sparkling wine – Spirito! We produced these méthode champenoise bubbles for the first time in the 2017 vintage. Every two years we produce this traditional method sparkling wine with multiple releases of varying levels of lees aging: from 19 months to 36 months en tirage.
For our first vintage in 2017 we crafted a brut rosé, and in 2019 we made both a blanc de noir and a blanc de blanc. Stay tuned for future releases!
Tocai Friulano
We planted less than an acre of this unique Italian white varietal at our Trovato vineyard back in 2015. It originated in the southwest of France, where it was known as Sauvignonasse or Sauvignon Vert, before finding a perfect home in Friuli, in far northeast Italy. There, its full name became Tocai Friulano which explains why it is often confused with the sweet Tokay (or Tokaji) wines from Hungary, though ours is produced completely dry. The varietal, while still relatively obscure in the States, produces low alcohol white wines with moderate acidity, and explosive aromatics: tropical fruit, exotic spice, and a touch of herbaceousness.
We release our Friulano each Spring, as a club-exclusive offering.
2020 2019 2018