We try to visit new tasting rooms on every trip to Washington wine country and last month, the Bordeaux blends at Fidelitas were calling my name. Yes, we had tasted and appreciated Charlie Hoppes’ hand-crafted fine wines at numerous events in the Seattle area over the last couple of years. But it was the first time we stopped at the tasting room on Red Mountain.

We had a wonderful time. The staff was friendly, the wines most definitely worth writing about, and the location – well, it’s Red Mountain!

It was one of those hot September days, so the 2008 Jaguar Pinot Gris was a refreshing opening to the many options on the Fidelitas tasting menu. Better yet, proceeds of this reasonably priced $15 wine go to the local Tri-Cities Prep High school.

On the other end of the price spectrum at $60, 2006 Champoux Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon was absolutely amazing. We were not surprised to find out that this intense and impressive wine was rated 93 points by Wine Spectator.

But the wine that we took home was 2006 Columbia Valley Optu Red. As the name indicates, this wine is optimum – a blend of fruit from six Columbia Valley vineyards made with Fidelitas finesse. This rich and classic wine blends 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot and 9% Cab Franc from these six vineyards: Champoux, Kiona, Weinbau, Stillwater, Conner-Lee and Boushey. Of course this wine would be magnificent!

And since it was magnificent when we tasted it at its release date (Sept. 2009), you know it’s going to be even more of a standout after a bit of time in the cellar.

While we were at the tasting room, we also discovered that Charlie worked with well-known grower Dick Boushey to plant Cabernet Sauvignon there. We will most definitely go back to Fidelitas, and we look forward to tasting Fidelitas’ first estate-grown and bottled wine in the future.

Cheers!