Fidelitas Wines

Team Fidelitas is Thankful For...

It’s Thanksgiving time! Not a one of us can believe that 2019 is winding down, and that once again, we are just about to run out of wine. In the spirit of the holiday week, let’s check in with our team to find out what we are each thankful for.

Charlie, Fidelitas Owner + Winemaker

I know that I have said this before, but it still holds true. I am thankful for Team Fidelitas. All the way from the production staff, which includes the cellar, lab, and winemaking team who make the wines and get it into the bottles, to the great staff people in the tasting rooms who make that final sale. Everyone has a role and they are doing a great job with it.

Bryce, Red Mountain Tasting Room Manager

I am thankful for the wonderful people that I have the opportunity to work with and learn from, as well as all of the amazing club members that come in and brighten each and every day!

Skye, Fidelitas Club Concierge

Where to begin!? Most importantly, I'm thankful to work with people who now double as friends. From weddings and birthdays, baby showers and trips, I have memories with Fidelitas that will last a lifetime. And to our members, I'm thankful that you have made my job so enjoyable these past 5 1/2 years! Many stories and laughs have been shared over a bottle of Fidelitas and I look forward to more of that in 2020.

Allie, Red Mountain Tasting Room Manager + Club Coordinator

I’m thankful for team Fidelitas and our Fidelitas wine club! Im alway look forward to sharing the excitement of limited release wines with our club members!! There’s no better group to geek out with.

Will the Winemaker in Training

Things I'm thankful for:

• Our vineyard managers and workers who were still able to give us excellent fruit even in a vintage that tested us like 2019
• Calling Red Mountain home - I've been trying lots of different wines from all over the world lately and love how unique RM is + how is stands up in quality to other famous growing regions
• Drinking champagne, smelling all the delicious smells, and arguing with my family over watching football or the Macy's parade on Thanksgiving morning

Josh, Woodinville Tasting Room Manager

I am thankful for our hard-working winemaking team!  They make our jobs easy in the tasting rooms.  Every wine, every vintage is just amazing, and it is a pleasure to share their work with our guests.

Therese, Lead Wine Educator

I am so very thankful for all of the people I have met while working at Fidelitas. They have started out as friends and become family. I am very blessed!

Jess, Fidelitas General Manager

Running a winery is no joke, and so it is easy for me to recognize all of the people and things I’m thankful for, knowing that there is no way I could do it alone. Thank you to...

Team Fidelitas: we have a bunch of new faces in Fidelitas leadership this year, and my newest members (Josh, Allie, and Bryce) each bring a unique quality and special talent to the team. In many ways, I feel like I’ve known them forever! Mix them with such a strong tasting room force in both locations, Stacey keeping me on track, my absolutely amazing Club team, and CHARLIE HOPPES at the helm, it’s magical.

Our Members: we started 2019 with 0 available bottles to sell and are going to be ending the year in just about the same boat. That means every wine we released this year, we sold, and almost all of that is going to our Club members. Thank you, thank you, for bringing Fidelitas into your homes and sharing it with your closest friends and families. It means to so much to us. You all are faithful, loyal, and true.

Red Mountain Wines (and the people who make them): There is no way we have such happy members or such a strong Team without absolutely incredible wines to showcase. Charlie and his winemaking team have committed to finding, sourcing, and producing the best blocks of fruit on Red Mountain, and we are all so thankful for that dedication to quality and craft.

It's Just Thanksgiving

I don’t know about you, but I have spent many a year, too many, trying to create the perfect Thanksgiving gathering for family and friends.  Now that I am of a certain age, I have become wise to the fact that shooting for perfection is boring for others and stressful for me – and highly disappointing for EVERYONE in the end.  So PERFECTLY IMPERFECT is my mantra for the holidays now.  Run out of time to make homemade cranberry sauce?  No worries grab a can opener and embrace the art deco lines from the can on that jiggly version.  No flowers for the table?  Got it covered.  Send the kids outside to gather some colorful leaves and a few interesting twigs and berries.  Aunt Helen and Uncle Frank going to be there an hour earlier than everyone else?  Hmmm.  That’s going to be a bit more challenging.  And that, as we all know, is why wine is so critical to the IMPERFECTLY PERFECT holiday season. 

Trying to find the perfect wines to go with the Thanksgiving meal can add even more stress for some.  But the real secret is to let go of the “perfect pairing” and simply choose “delicious”.  Delicious wins every time.  And fortunately for you, Fidelitas is the go-to wine for DELICIOUS across the board.  We sadly sold out of our Optu White before summer even ramped up this year BUT it’s back and better than ever!  You name the dish; the answer will always be Optu White for your white wine fans (and many red wine fans as well!).  The creaminess the Semillon brings and the crisp, bright acidity that Sauvignon Blanc delivers is the best combination.  It is perfectly balanced and will take you from appetizers to dessert.  It’s the only white you need for the entire meal. 

For the red wine lovers,  the wines I would choose to please a wide audience is the Fidelitas Ciel du Cheval Cabernet Franc (current vintage is sold out, so those of you who have it, POP IT!) which always delivers softer tannins and subtle spicy and herbal notes.  Others I would add to the table are the 2016 Ciel du Cheval Merlot (which is a Wine Club only wine) and the 2016 Red Mountain Merlot (available to all!).  Both bring beautiful structure, velvety tannins and fantastic fruit like only Red Mountain can deliver.

Team Fidelitas wishes you all a wonderful Thanksgiving.  And we are sincerely thankful for all of you and your support of the wines crafted by Charlie and his team! And just a final thought: keep in mind that at the center of every great gathering is the connection we make with everyone in that space not the appearance of perfection.  We all want to feel included and seen and special, no matter our age or calling in life.  In my opinion, there is no better way to say that than letting people know you love them just the way they are – knowing they will always be PERFECTLY IMPERFECT!  Please take the time to just BE this holiday season and enjoy the moment just the way it is…...with a glass of Fidelitas in hand of course!

A Club just for you? We've got it.

Wine Clubs have been around for a long time. Even the Fidelitas Wine Club has been going strong for almost 15 years. For a lot of wineries out there, there haven’t been a lot of changes other than upgrading from desktop computers to iPads in the tasting room. Most wineries are still following a recipe for their wines, deciding what they think will appeal to the masses, and pre-selecting your Club shipment for you.

As the Fidelitas Wine Club has grown over the years, we’ve always known that what is most important is to give you, the customer, access to our best wines sourced from the most sought after vineyards on Red Mountain, and personalize your experience along the way by giving you what you really want.

A couple years ago, we had to change the way things ran around here because we were finding that we couldn’t make enough of a certain wine to fulfill the whole Wine Club. 96 cases of Ciel du Cheval Petit Verdot isn’t going to go very far when we have a club that needs over 200 cases of a particular wine to give every member just 1 bottle, and these small lot wines are just too good to produce in this way. So, we changed the club from what was once the traditional “we pick for you” model to a more customized club experience. This gave Charlie the freedom to continue to produce vineyard designated (and sometimes Clonal specific) wines and still make our members happy…win win!

How the Club works: 

• We release a handful of wines specifically designed for the Club. This means that from the beginning, like literally in the vineyard, we make these wines with the intention to release them as something really special, just for our members. Only a small amount of the wine we make is sold outside of the club – and several wines never make it to the tasting room.  
• As a member, you get the opportunity to sample these wines before they are released at our Preview Tasting events held in January and July, or if you can’t make it, the Club Concierge will work with you to personalize your allocation based on your preferences.
• You get to pick out the wines that you want! Whether you log-in through our website, visit us, drop us a note, or give us a call, your allocation is yours to personalize. Love Red Mountain Cabernet but don’t care for Merlot, we may not agree with your taste but it’s no problem! We won’t stick you with anything you don’t want.
• To top it off, you can add extras for a bigger discount and included shipping or we can even customize your shipment to arrive when it works best for you.
• Prefer the traditional model? We’ll take the work out of it for you and send you a selection of our newest releases

There is a catch…

Our wines are first come, first served. This meaning that if you don’t secure your allocation then you might miss out on our most limited wines. Take the wines we are releasing this fall from Ciel du Cheval Vineyard for example. Members who customize their allocation by October 31 are able to choose from the following wines:

2016 Ciel du Cheval Cabernet Franc – 142 cases produced – SOLD OUT

2016 Ciel du Cheval Merlot – 142 cases produced – 40 left

2016 Ciel du Cheval Red Wine – 288 cases produced – 20 left

2016 Ciel du Cheval Cabernet Sauvignon – 386 cases produced – 19 left

Plus you can add on:

2016 Ciel du Cheval Petit Verdot – 96 cases produced – 13 left

Cabernet Franc, a fan favorite, sold out in a matter of weeks once we opened the Club selection window and Petit Verdot and Red Wine aren’t far behind it. This means that if you have certain wines you know you want, get in there and reserve them as soon as the selection window opens. We like to think our release window opening is just as exciting as tickets going on sale for your favorite concert…and to be honest, our members have broken the internet before with excitement!

Keep an eye on your email for news regarding the wines to come in the new year. They are our most anticipated yet!

Reflecting on Fidelitas' 20th Harvest

First off, I'd like to give a shout out to our cellar crew and specifically my dad and Mitch who were awesome teachers this harvest (with no shortage of sarcasm) and with many loooong days in a row, made Fidelitas' 20th harvest a success.

Look at how chipper and well-rested we look

As I sit here writing this on October 29th it marks (almost exactly) 2 months since we picked and pressed Klipsun Sauvignon Blanc just before Labor Day Weekend to get Harvest 2019 kicked off.  We noted that the sugar levels were notably lower than what we had picked it at in previous years, but it tasted ripe and we didn’t think it would benefit from more time on the vines, so we decided to start bringing stuff in.  Little did we know, this theme of ripeness at lower sugar levels would carry on into almost every one of our vineyard blocks.

Klipsun Sauvignon Blanc - the base of our Optu White

Klipsun SB was shortly followed by all of our other white blocks Klipsun Semillon, Artz SB, Artz SM, and Quintessence SB.  Early September weather was perfect grape-ripening weather with highs in the high 80's and 90's and nighttime temperatures in the low 50's.  Things kept moving along like clockwork with Quintessence Merlot, our first red every year, picked on September 4th, followed by other Merlots from around the mountain, Cabernets, Malbecs, and so-on.  Working with the same blocks year-after-year my dad has "his rhythm" figured out knowing the order that our fruit tends to ripen in and can work his daily vineyard visits accordingly.  In 2019 alone Fidelitas had 13 different vineyard partners that we worked with resulting in 85 individual lots, sometimes as small as 2 barrels, which will stay separate from one another until blending (i.e., a single varietal from a single vineyard block, fermented in a specific way: oak tank, roller barrels, upright barrels, etc...) That being said, even an individual lot is split further into different fermenations like our Blackwood Cab, which was split amongst 1 oak tank and 6 individual roller barrels.  A perfect example of the attention this attention to detail: after years of experience on Red Mountain we're now able to match individual clones of Cabernet from certain vineyards and match them with our favorite fermenters, barrels, and winemaking techniques that we think they'll work best with in that particular vintage.  It's something that makes for long days throughout every step of the winemaking process but results in wines of amazing quality and classic "Red Mountain" characteristics that we love. 

Roller barrels and upright barrels tucked into a corner of the winery during the peak of harvest

One thing I touched in an earlier blog post is how "bright" and lively on the palate all of the wines were as we were tasting samples out of the tanks and press before going into barrel.  I think what happened is we didn't have an extremely hot summer, only a few days reaching 100+, followed by mild/warm fall which allowed the wines to ripen at a higher acid level resulting in wines that should have great structure and ageability.  My dad reflected on the harvest as being one of those magical harvests you get every so often if you stay at it long enough: "The quality level of this vintage is exceptional and reminds me of 2009 and to a certain extent, 1999. Both of those vintages turned out to be incredible years. We are consistently able to reach the flavors we are looking for at lower than normal Brix levels, leading to slightly lower alcohol levels and higher natural acids. My theory is that with more moderate summer temperatures, we had less days when the vines shut down to protect themselves from the heat. We were able to accumulate sugar at a more even pace and thus, a great year. It might be a bit premature to declare 2019 the vintage of the decade but it does show tremendous potential."

Filling tanks on his birthday

When we look back at this vintage one thing that will sadly be one of the defining moments is the mid-October frost that affected most of Eastern WA.  We got hit around October 8-9 which shut down most vines that had fruit still on them and forced a lot of winemakers to pick earlier than expected.  Luckily for us we were about 90% of the way done at the time being on Red Mountain which is one of the earlier ripening areas.  Looking back, we noted that it was really only a couple bad days that changed things as the weather warmed up immediately after and remained pretty mellow for the rest of October.  But that's what happens in agriculture and what makes winemaking so unique in that each vintage and bottle of wine has its own memories both good and bad attached.

Red Mountain the morning after a hard freeze

Other reflections/things I learned/things I was reminded of this year:

• Just how lucky we are on Red Mountain to have dozens of hand-picked lots that came into the winery which looked impeccable.

Quintessence Merlot #nofilter

• Perhaps the best takeaway is how impressive the 2015 plantings of Cab, Merlot, Malbec, PV, and Cab Franc at the Estate were - these definitely took a noticeable leap in quality.

Estate PV

• When your dad is your boss, all of your co-workers get to learn the embarrassing things you did as a kid.
• Getting a whole new appreciation by toiling over these wines for 2 months of how unique all the different sites, clones, and varietals are that make up Red Mountain

• I had Top Ramen and a bottle of 2014 Blackwood Cab for dinner at 11:00 p.m. which pretty much sums up life of a winemaker during harvest.
• When you enter into a harvest beard competition everyone wins (except I still think I beat the Williams brothers from Kiona).
• Never move into a new apartment right before harvest.
• I gained a better understanding of what berries and juice taste like when they're ripe and what fermentations taste like when they're ready to be pressed off, and that it takes hundreds of repetitions to make any progress. If I had to guess, I'd say my dad has tasted 50,000+ different fermentations throughout his career.
• Meeting with your gracious club members every so often during harvest is the best motivation

Cheers to 2019!

 

Food + Wine Pairing: It Isn't Always Perfect

It hasn’t always been like this. For those who have been with for a while, you may remember that I used to throw full, themed dinner parties for my friends to try out recipes with each new release from Fidelitas. But, eight years and two kids later, I find myself in the middle of a 1.5 hour kid pick-up commute, listening to ‘Let It Go’ for the 119th time, and pondering the inventory counts I did earlier in the day. Could we really be down to 15 cases of Quintessence Cabernet? Only 35 cases of Malbec? When was the last time I went to the grocery store and what exactly am I going to make for dinner tonight? Somewhere between the Quintessence Cabernet and the thought of going to the grocery store with two kids after 5pm, I remembered an Instagram post I saw for a recipe that promised I had all the ingredients in my pantry…and then remembered I had Quintessence Cabernet in my cellar.

Was my finished product as beautiful as Smitten Kitchen? Certainly not. But did it turn out delicious, feed the fam, and pair awesome with Cabernet on a rainy night? Yes, yes, and yes.

Deb's version	my version	kid version

In one of the first wine courses I ever took – a food and wine pairing class – the teacher told us “it’s not so much about the perfect pairing, but about the perfect wine with the perfect meal with the perfect company” and that was certainly how this dinner ended up. Sooner than later, I am positive that I’ll be enjoying that glamorous wine country lifestyle again. In the meantime, I’ll enjoy the small wins of grown-up spaghetti-os and awesome wine on a weekday night.

Harvest 2019: 30 Days in a Row and Counting...

I’ve been saying this since the first day we brought fruit in: 2019 is just a great year. Again, it’s a unique year in that we’re able to ripen fruit with lower than usual brix. The flavors that we’re finding out in the vineyard are just incredible, and we’ve been able to make the decision to follow a picking schedule based on tasting instead of waiting for certain sugar levels to show up.

We only have about 20 tons to go in the Fidelitas Estate Vineyard. We’re going to pick the remaining blocks between Saturday and Monday of this week. This is all Cabernet, and mostly our older blocks, 3a, 2, and 1, and then block 5 on the northern half of the vineyard. At that point, we’ll be about 80% done for Fidelitas, only still needing to bring in Cabernet from Blackwood Canyon Vineyard and The Canyons.

This is the first year I’ve had my son, Will, in the Cellar with us. It’s been just great having him and Mitch working together on the same shifts, and he’s learning everything from the floor up. He’s digging tanks, filling barrels, everything.

We haven’t taken a day off since September 3rd, so we’re working towards 30+ days in a row…and it’s great. Each day I’m writing pump over orders that take place at 6am and 1pm each day. Currently, it’s taking us about 4 hours to complete pump overs, so we basically do one round and then start all over again. Mitch, Will, and I sit down at 10am daily to taste through the wines in each of our fermentation vessels. This is invaluable for Will to start building his own database with his palate. It’s natural for Mitch and I and we’re able to make decisions based on a quick taste, and Will is learning quickly.

I generally consider Halloween my first day ‘off’ from Harvest. I remember looking forward to it when the kids were little, getting to go home and see their costumes and just spend time with the family. While I don’t have little ones at home anymore, I still think we’ll be on track for that Halloween day off, although still with plenty to do in the Cellar. Harvest keeps us busy, but it’s the best kind of busy.

winemaker in training, Will Hoppes, sporting a lovely blond wig

Vintage of the Decade?

The first white grapes were picked and pressed from Klipsun Vineyard, starting August 29th. Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon were all completed and to barrel, Ovium barrel, or concrete egg by September 5th. We got started on reds with our first pick of the year being Merlot from Quintessence Vineyard on September 4th. Now, all Merlot from Red Mountain is complete along with Malbec, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot, which will be completed by next week. I imagine we will be finished with fruit for Fidelitas by the end of the week of October 7th. Things move quickly on Red Mountain.

Ciel du Cheval Vineyard Block 75 Merlot in the Cellar

The quality level of this vintage is exceptional and reminds me of 2009 and to a certain extent, 1999. Both of those vintages turned out to be incredible years. We are consistently able to reach the flavors we are looking for at lower than normal Brix levels, leading to slightly lower alcohol levels and higher natural acids. My theory is that with more moderate summer temperatures, we had less days when the vines shut down to protect themselves from the heat. We were able to accumulate sugar at a more even pace and thus, a great year. It might be a bit premature to declare 2019 the vintage of the decade but it does show tremendous potential.

Clonal Cabernet from the Fidelitas Estate Vineyard

 

5th Annual Estate Vineyard Dinner

 

 

Harvest Update - Will Edition

We heard from Will!

Ever since he left Woodinville to start his winemaking journey with Charlie, he has been quite the busy man. But he was able to climb out of the tanks to give us an update on how harvest is going and let's just say, this vintage will be one for the books!

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From Will

- I'm writing this right before I start my split shift so I'll make it quick; harvest has picked up so half the crew at the winery is working 6am-4pm, crushing fruit, measuring fermentations and inoculating, + doing the morning pumpovers, punchdowns, and roll of the roller barrels while the second half of the team works 10am-8pm pressing fermentations into barrel and finishing with the pumpovers.  Mitch, Chaz, and I usually meet right at 10am to taste through everything and decide what's going to get pressed that afternoon or next morning.
- The biggest thing we've noticed is how "bright" the wines are from this harvest - great acidity, light on the palate, without any overripe fruit characteristics.  We've seen a gradual cool end of the summer which has allowed us to pick things at a nice even pace without worrying about everything getting ripe all at once.  Sometimes we get pretty warm mid-September but the forecast is mid-high 70's with
- We're about 40% done with all the Fidelitas picks which is hard to believe but we still have lots and lots of cab coming in which tends to be the most work with all the different fermentation vessels that we use for those,
- Right now we have 33 red, 12 white, 2 rose active fermentations at Wine Boss
- The most exciting news yet is the 3 Estate Vineyard lots we have going, Merlot, Malbec, and Clone 169 Cab.  Can't wait to try those after they getting closer to being dry.  We've processed quite a bit of Quintessence fruit already so we'll have a good benchmark to compare those too.
- Fun fact: Malbec looks horrible when it gets crushed, the insides are lime green, everything falls apart, and the juice is like a beige/pale color.  Then overnight magic happens and the juice is a dark purple color and tastes like wildberry jam.
 

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Thanks for the update, Will! Now...get back to pumpovers! 

 

Harvest has Begun!

We're now heading in to the time of year where I barely see Charlie and am happy to get quick texts from him and pictures from Will. Harvest is underway! Here is what we're hearing from Charlie: "We picked our first reds on Wednesday: Merlot from Quintessence Vineyard. The fruite seems to have more, riper flavors this year but at lower Brix than normal. I believe it is from having nice warm weather but not having super hot days exceeding 100F during the growing season. All of the whites we have picked have been lower brix than normal but have had great flavors. Things are looking great so far!"

pick schedule looks easy to start

Sauvignon Blanc in Artz Vineyard 

out for the first pick: Klipsun Sauvignon Blanc early on August 29

first day of harvest...still smiling

the pick schedule is getting fuller...but he's still smiling!

Merlot in Quintessence Vineyard, consistently our first red block of the year

Quintessence Merlot coming in to the cellar

and then finding a rest spot to ferment in a Boutes tank