About
About The Fizz & The Funk
The days of using “crushed wet rock” and “pencil shavings” to describe wine? Yeah. Those are history. So kindly scoot over, literally everyone featured in the documentary “Somm.”
We’re here to tell you about bubbly pét-nats that taste like Country Time pink lemonade and a grapefruit mimosa playing footsie under the table (get a room), and fruity reds that aren’t liquified cigar contents. We’re here to pair boozy grape juice with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and Italian hoagies instead of sad nectarine salads with pecan-crusted chevré. We’re here to tell you which bottles are excellent despite lacking a psychedelic label, and what to drink by the pool - even if your “pool” is really just a lawn sprinkler, or an ice cube rubbed on your face until it melts.
We’re The Fizz & The Funk. We’re here to put the dynamic in biodynamic - one glass (or Winnie The Pooh jam jar) at a time.
OK, But Another Natural Wine Site?
Save it. Here’s the thing. We all know that wine should be more approachable. That’s what everyone says. But for so many sources out there that claim to demystify wine, wine is still feeling pretty dang mystical.
Whether you’re part of the crowd that gets off on tertiary forest floor aromas, or you’re part of the glou-glou-cool-kids’-society, I’ve learned that wine tends to be a game of “choose the exclusive club you wish to join,” when it shouldn’t be exclusive, or a club, at all.
That’s where I come in. Welcome to your safe space for discovering what you like to drink in a way that’s including you instead of pushing you away down a flight of stairs and not being asked to return until you know what carbonic maceration is. Wine is just a freaking drink. Let’s make it fun, and let’s make it for everyone who wants a gulp.
Who’s In Charge Of This Thing?
[freeze frame] [record scratch] Yep, that’s me. You’re probably wondering how I got here.
Greetings, fellow grape juice gulpers of the galaxy. I’m Aimee Rizzo (@atotherizzo). Libra, soprano, B.S. in Screenwriting, Seattleite, year-long cold brew consumer, advocate of good times powered by tropical house music, performing among the bottom 25% on every Peloton ride I somehow complete (truth be told it’s more like 15%), and: the eternally-weird brain behind The Fizz & The Funk.
Once upon a time, I was a restaurant critic for a popular food media platform. And let me tell you, it was a dream job. Everything was like that post-coital dance sequence from 500 Days Of Summer. For around four years, I ate and drank, writing about those foods and beverages as sassily as I possibly could, all in exchange for money to live. My unexpected “local fame” rose to the point where I was stopped on the street often by fans, and one time someone even asked me for a hug. You better believe I gave her that hug. But more or less, I spent the beginnings of my career having the time of my life, proving that the pen is mightier than the steak knife - but also using steak knives a lot to cut steak. I started to dabble in vino a little bit too, and on January 15th, 2021, I was about to publish a piece with some wine recommendations when my editor said to me, “Hey, I really like the way you write about wine.”
10 minutes later, the company laid me off and I lost my job. That threw a wrench in some things. But throughout the weeks to come, my editor’s words kept echoing between my ears like Obi Wan Kenobi’s to Luke in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. (Hi, Carlo! This website’s kind of your fault).
As a food writer, I never got a chance to truly sink my teeth into wine, since I was really too busy sinking those teeth into cheeseburgers, pho, ice cream, tikka masala, sushi, pizza, xiao long bao, tacos, lumpia, po’ boys, A5 Miyazaki wagyu, cake, lasagna, Nashville-style hot chicken sandwiches, caviar, more pizza, and millions of fries/tater tots for nearly half a decade. So what if I earned a WSET2 Certificate (almost) ironically, applying my gastronomic smarts and irreverent mouth to matter-of-factly spit out some natural wine tasting notes? Well, this. This right here is what if. Come for the banter, come for the juice recommendations. But most importantly, come for the fizz, and come for the funk. There’s plenty to go around.
