FIDELITAS WINES

2009 Harvest - A Quick One

2009-10-22T08:22:00.000-07:00

We brought our last bit of fruit in for Fidelitas on October 16th after the hard freeze we had and I thought to myself, wow this was a quick harvest. Quick indeed with our first grapes coming in the door from Champoux and Red Mountain Vineyard on September 10th and our last grapes finishing on October 16th. Thirty seven days in total is about as quick as I can remember in my 22 year career in Washington starting in 1988. I have had years where we have started earlier, even before Labor Day, and I have years where we have ended sooner, but never thirty seven days in length. Warm temperature well into the 90's into the first half of September on several days moved things along quickly with sugars rocketing up quickly. The flavors also developed nicely as well thus the September. On October 11th and 12th temperature at night got into the low 20's almost everywhere with some temperatures reaching the high teen's. This absolutely did the canopy in and prompted a need to get the fruit in the door as soon as possible. It took us a few days to get it done but by Friday, October 16th we had brought everything in. We do not necessarily get a hard freeze this early every year but I once had a grower tell me that all grape growers should plan on having all their grapes ready to go by October 15th every year because a hard freeze can occur. Many wineries were caught off guard on being proactive and getting grapes harvested in a timely manner and because of this are still picking. As the fruit hangs out on the vine after the freeze I worry about the degradation of the fruit and the flavors the wines will take on. Hopefully, this will not affect too many of the wineries in the state.

The Ever Changing Marketplace

2009-01-12T10:24:00.000-08:00

I spent last week in DC/N. Virginia and in Richmond working with our distributor in the area, International Cellars. While in the market I learned an interesting fact from them concerning business in Virginia. Recent data put out by the Virginia ABC (Liquor Control Agency) shows a 20 % decrease in wine sales to restaurant over the past six months, while at the same time showing a 40% increase in retail wine sales. What an interesting trend. Essentially this means people have slowed down the amount of eating out they are doing in restaurants and thus the 20% decrease in sales. At the same time, a 40% increase in sales at retail is a huge. I am assuming this is strickly sales dollars. This is a significant trend in that people are still consuming wine, perhaps more wine, but are drinking the wine at home rather in a restaurant. So in the midst of a recession, wine consumption in this case has gone up overall but the point of consumption has changed. It is probably not too surprising that consumption is going up during a recesssion, but I think it is interesting the dramatic shift from restaurant to retail.

Happy New Year

2009-01-09T03:28:00.000-08:00

I have started the new year on the road in the Virginia and Washington D.C. area. If there is a time to work the DC market it has to be now. Everyone here is gearing up for the inauguration of President elect Obama on the 20th of January. An estimated four million people will travel to the DC / Northern Virginia area to be part of the inauguration celebration. That is a tremendous amount of people. The restaurants are already booking up on days before and after the election. Hours that restaurants and bars are open are being being extended to 4:30 A.M. on inauguration day. This will be great for the wine business and we should see a huge amount of wine consumed during this time. The area seems somewhat recession proof, since the federal goverment has not stopped doing business.

I am also spending some time in Richmond, Virginia. Richmond is the capital of the state of Virginia and about a two hour drive south of Washington D.C.. I am staying at The Jefferson Hotel. This is a must see if you ever come to this area. I had a tour of the hotel yesterday when I arrived and was very impressed with how they have preserved this building which was built in 1895. We poured wine last night for a group of hospitality executives in the area. I am working the market today and finish my trip off tonight with a dinner tonight here at the hotel using our wines exclusively. The dinner is full with about thirty people attending. You really do feel like you are in the south being here in Richmond. The restaurant in the hotel serves peanut soup and deep fried pickles, amongst other local specialties.

2005 Red Vintage

2008-08-07T20:34:00.000-07:00

I get asked often about various vintages that I have had the good fortune to work with in Washington. I think the 2005 vintage is one of my top three favorite vintages of my career in Washington. I started making wines in 1988 working under Mike Januik at Snoqualmie, Saddle Mountain & Langguth labels and 2005 stands out. The obvious questions is why ?
The biggest factor contributing to the success of the 2005 vintage in my opinion would be the great weather we had in the fall ripening season. Every day from the middle of September through late October brought clear sunny days with temperatures reaching the low to mid 70's almost every day. I cannot remember a single day of rain the entire fall. The moderate days lead to slow even ripening of all varieties and a chance for great flavor development from the extended time on the vine. The "hang time" enables the flavors to go from green and bitter to ripe cherry and cassis. This is noticeable with increased sugar accumulation in the berries on the vine but more importantly better flavors. Great vintages like the 2005 are most attributed to mother nature. As a winemaker you just try and not make too many mistakes along the way.
At Fidelitas, we have still have many of the outstanding 2005 wines for sale. These wines are very drinkable now, but have great age ablilty in a wine cellar. Both the Columbia Valley Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon are great values and will make a nice wine for a cellar. We also still have very limited amounts of our 8 - Syrah, Boushey - Red Wine, Champoux Vineyard - Cabernet Sauvignon and Walla Walla Valley - Cabernet Sauvignon. Do not miss out on the chance to try these wines at the tasting room and purchase some of these wines for your cellar. Cheers !

Montana - My Home

2008-06-16T22:30:00.000-07:00

I visited western Montana last week and got a chance to check out a couple of emerging markets in the Flathead Lake area including Whitefish, Kalispell and Bigfork and also the Missoula market. It is always great to visit Montana since it is where our family is from and where I was born along with my parents and all my siblings. Telling the story of my grandmother Mary and her families immigration from France to north central Montana always means more when people actually know where Shelby and Sunburst are in Montana. Montana is still a place where it seems as if everyone knows each other even though parts of the state are showing significant growth.

I spent a day in both markets visiting mostly restaurants but did get a chance to visit a couple of impressive retail stores as well. In Whitefish I had dinner at Tupelo Grille in downtown Whitefish on my first night in town. Our distributor sale representative Peter Grantz and I had dinner with a California Owner/Winemaker Gary Luchtel with Suhr Luchtel in Napa Valley. It is always great to spend some time with other people in the business. The staff and the food were great and I had a great time. We shares a bottle of 1999 Chapellet Vineyard - Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley. The wine was very impressive. Wednesday involved calling on several accounts including a stop at McGarry's roadhouse in Whitefish and a visit with Steve Nogal the owner and chef. Steve and his wife Sandy had been with the Inn at Langley in Washington for several years prior to opening this impressive place in Whitefish and were very knowledgeable about Washington wine. That always seems to help a bit. We ended the day in Bigfork at Invite - American Kitchen & Bar with Andrea & Andy Kriss. They have been big supporters of Fidelitas and have visited us on Red Mountain.

I spent a day and a half in Missoula with Jim Chapman. We had dinner at Red Bird Wine Bar the first night in Missoula. Very hip place and a great selection of wines and food. Missoula is a college town and just has the cutting edge feel of a college town. We made a stop at Worden's Deli and met with Chris whom I have met on several other trips through Montana. Worden's has a great deli and I would recommend a stop here anytime. We also visited Scotty's Table in their new location, very impressive new property. We visited Good Food Store also in Missoula and spent some time with Jerod Peitsmeyer the beer & wine buyer. What a great store and wine section. This gorcery store kind of had the feel of a Whole Foods but without the steep prices. I had a very productive visit to Montana. It is always great to go home to Montana.

Taste Washington Interview

2008-04-11T23:02:00.000-07:00

My self imposed sabbatical from my blog is officially over. I had the good fortune to be interviewed by Duane Pemberton for his website Winefoot.com . Check it out , you might enjoy it. Here is the link to the interview :

http://www.winefoot.com/index.php/2008/04/07/interview
-with-charlie-hoppes-of-fidelitas-winery/

December Wine Club Wines & Farmer's Kitchen Restaurant

2007-12-06T21:39:00.000-08:00

Our next wine club wines that will be shipped next week includes the 2005 Boushey Vineyard - Red Wine from Boushey Vineyard in the Yakima Valley and our first ever wine from the Red Mountain appellation that being 2005 Red Mountain Merlot from Red Mountain Vineyard. Both wines are highly allocated so if you think you would like some of this wine please feel free to call Jessica Gamache and place your order at 509-521-4433.

The 2005, Boushey Vineyard wine is a blend of 53% Merlot, 40 % Cabernet Sauvignon and 7% Cabernet Franc. All the grapes grown for this blend came from vines 25 years and older. When Dick Boushey approached me before the 2005 harvest with the idea of making a special wine from his vineyard I was honored take the grapes and to make a wine. Dick was recently honored by Wine & Spirits Magazine as " Grower of the Year" for 2007. What a well deserved honor to bestow on a great Washington wine grape grower. We have poured the wine at a few events to give people a sneek preview. The response has been very positive and we should sell through the wine quickly. Only 300 cases were produced of this wine and it is packed in six bottle custom boxes.

Merlot from Red Mountain Vineyard is the other wine in this shipment. Only six barrels of this highly allocated wine were produced from the 2005 vintage. This is the first of what we hope will be many wines from the Red Mountain appellation that we will make for Fidelitas. Only 190 cases of this wine was produced. If you are interested in these wines they are available via our web site at www.fidelitaswines.com If you are a wine club member please remember that you get a 20% discount on these wines for the first thirty dates following recieving the shipment.

I recently had dinner with our distributor Denise & Martin Pitney along with my wife Terri at the Farmer's Kitchen in Hermiston, Oregon. We had a great dinner and I would recommend checking this fairly new restaurant out the next time you are looking for a great dining experience. The proprietors of this new establishment are Kristen and Aaron Yunker. Aaron is from Hermiston. The location of the restaurant is 920 SE 4th in Hermiston and they can be reached at 541-289-3333. They can also be reached via e-mail at FarmersKitchen@gmail.com . Martin and I had the Lamb, while Denise and Terri ordered the Cajun Ling Cod. Both entree's were fabulous and the atmosphere superb. We also ordered three different dessert's and enjoyed both cheesecakes and a baked apple pie. If you get a chance check this great new addition to our area. The Farmer's Kitchen is open Tuesday through Saturday from 5- 9 P.M.

2007 Crush Complete

2007-11-14T08:00:00.000-08:00

We finally pressed off the last couple of tanks of Malbec right before the weekend. It is great to be finished. Although much of what we brought in this year ripened earlier than normal the harvest seemed to drag on to finish about when we usually finish, November 1st. Andy Perdue was out over the weekend to interview me in regard to my thoughts on the 2007 harvest. This was good because it made me summarize my thoughts in regard to the vintage rather than just being relieved to be done. The video can be watched on the Wine Press Northwest web site. Look for the weekly video blog in the left hand margin.

The more I think about the 2007 vintage the more it reminds me of 1999. Extremely high acids at harvest was the norm then as was the case this year. Once we put these wines through malolactic fermentation we should see wines with perfect acids well within the range we are looking for. This is not the case every year in Washington, despite the fact many people in the industry would like to have you think otherwise. Recent very warm vintages have pushed the natural acids down dramatically and without acidulation the wines we would have produced would have been nearly undrinkable. 2007 seems like a great vintage to look forward to.

I scheduled some events and trips since harvest has been completed. I am spending a couple of days here in Arizona working with a new distributor. The weather here is perfect today, I guess that is why so many people winter here.

2007 Harvest Winding Down

2007-10-29T21:04:00.000-07:00

Our last grapes for the year will picked in the next couple of days, that being some Gamache Vineyard Malbec. It's been a good harvest with most vineyards about a week ahead of normal ripening time. The quality that I have seen is very encouraging and can best be summarized by the great acid levels we have seen in most of the grapes for the year. I have talked to a few other winemakers in regard to the relative high acid levels before malolactic fermentation and have reassured them that we are going to see the acids fall into normal levels once malolactic fermentation is complete. This is what we saw in the 1999 vintage in Washington where the acid levels turned out to be nearly perfect. For Fidelitas so far I think we have seen some great wines with Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec being the highlights. Much of our Cabernet Sauvignon is right in the middle of primary fermentation and will come off its skins this week to go to barrel. It's great to be winding down, I am feeling a bit fatigued at this point.
Last Saturday, October 27th we hosted three of our growers for dinner and our Wine Club event. Grower's taking part were Dick Boushey - Boushey Vineyard, Paul Champoux - Champoux Vineyard and Miguel Rodriguez from Weinbau Vineyard. We have a story board at the winery now behind our tasting carts that highlight the contributions these growers make to the success that Fidelitas has had with its wines. All three of these growers have twenty years of vineyard management experience under their belts and is reflected in the grapes we recieve and wines we are able to make. We put these guys behind a table with either a wine from their vineyard or a blend that had grapes from their vineyard in the wine. It was great for our Wine Club members to actually meet the grower who's name is often on the bottle they have purchased. This was a special time and I think all three growers had a great time meeting the customers.

Wine and Spirits Magazine Top 100

2007-10-22T20:25:00.000-07:00

The Winter - 2007 issue of Wine and Spirits magazine is the issue in which they name their Top 100 wineries from throughout the world. Fidelitas was fortunate enough to make this year's list along with eight other Washington wineries. The magazine based the award upon "excellence and consistency" in what the winery is producing. We scored 93 points for our 2003 Champoux Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon along with a 90 score for both the 2003 Optu and 2003 Walla Walla Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. The magazine tasted over 3300 wines in the calendar year and based it's decision upon consistency and overall average score of wines recommended.
Grower of the year honors went to Yakima Valley grower, Dick Boushey. This is grower of the year for all regions. This is a significant honor for a grower from Washington state and reinforces my belief that Washington's growing region is on par with the best in the world. Dick Boushey is a grower that we buy fruit from and have made a vineyard designated wine from the 2005 vintage. We are looking to release this wine as a wine club shipment in December of this year.
Fellow Washington winery Leonetti Cellars was honored as top estate winery of the year by the magazine. Other wineries from Washington were Amavi, Betz, Cadence, Chateau Ste Michelle, L'Ecole No. 41, Leonetti, McCrea and Tamarack Cellars.
It is an honor to be mentioned along side some of the most highly respected producers of wine in the world. On a personal level, it is always nice to get mentioned for our efforts to produce the best wine possible. Cheers ! Charlie

Light At the End of the Tunnel

2007-10-11T21:44:00.000-07:00

I figured out exactly how far we are through harvest today, roughly 55% of the way. Being more than half way finished is a big deal, at least mentally it is. Most people do not realize what a grind harvest can be after a while. Once we start filling fermentors up in the cellar, winemaking is an everyday job that lasts about sixty days from start to finish. We are so heavily weighted towards Cabernet Sauvignon now that it seems like we should be further along but we are not because of the lateness of this varietal. Most of the warmer sites for Cabernet Sauvignon have been picked such as all of Red Mountain and Champoux Vineyard in the Horse Heaven Hills appellation. Some of the sites we get fruit from in the Wahluke Slope appellation such as Weinbau Vineyard are ready and will be picked this week as well.
The vintage continues to show great promise so far. Great tannin structure and incredible fruit flavors dominate. The weather looks to stay nice at least through this weekend so we will continue to bring in fruit at a accelerated pace. We have picked all but one lot of our white wine grapes and that will be picked early next week. We can see light at the end of the tunnel !
Cheers
Charlie

Merlot In the Door

2007-10-02T21:46:00.000-07:00

We finally got all our Merlot picked in between a few days of rain. It rained Friday, September 28 and Sunday, September 30. We finished up with Boushey Vineyard and Conner-Lee Vineyard Merlot on Monday. The quality of the Merlot at least initially seem very nice since we have pressed all our Merlot with the exception of these two vineyards. Very deep red colors as the fruit was being destemmed and crushed. This is usually a good indication of how the grapes will progress in the tank once fermentation starts. Most of the fermentations have been six to seven days in length with pumpovers twice daily. I am not big on cold soaking the fruit before fermentation occurs. I prefer getting things going quickly with inoculation (pitching) of yeast happening shortly after the fruit is crushed into the tank. If we ferment in smaller tanks and we are going to punch the cap down we do this at least twice daily and sometimes three times a day. I believe in short very warm fermentations where much of the extraction of flavors occurs prior to much alcohol being produced. I also like to get the fermenting juice off the skins as soon as I feel we have extracted the color and flavors that we are looking for in the wine. After we press the juice off of the skins we generally go to barrels within twenty four hours. This is my twentieth vintage in Washington and the methods I discuss above are what I feel works for me to make the very best wine possible from Washington's Columbia Valley. Cheers!

Weather Watching / Cordon Group

2007-09-30T20:36:00.000-07:00

It has rained two of the last three days. I canceled the Merlot I had scheduled to pick today. We will look at the weather in the morning and decide whether we will pick tomorrow or not. The forecast looks decent for the week with a slight chance of rain each day but as long as the weather stays clear we should get quite a bit of fruit picked this week.
Friday night, the 27th we hosted our distributor, Cordon Selections annual trip to Eastern Washington with members of the trade from Western Washington. This is the fourth year we have started the weekend with taco's and wine on Red Mountain. Our neighbors, Tim & Kelly Hightower have co-hosted this event since it's inception. This is a great chance for key members of the industry to get a chance to see wineries in action and for many a chance to see ripe fruit on the vine. Saturday is spent with a visit to wineries that Cordon represents that are located in the Walla Walla Valley. I spent today on the bus touring vineyards north of the Tri-Cities with the group. I enjoy the contact with these key players in the industry and find the questions they ask very stimulating. Often times this interaction puts some of their preconcieved ideas to the test, which I find great. Crop level was one of the topics we touched upon today that had some of these people scratching their heads. It's great to get these people over to Eastern Washington and see first hand where it all happens.

Harvest Update - 2007

2007-09-26T16:24:00.000-07:00

As we approach the end of September I am starting to get a good feel for how this vintage is stacking up compared to other vintages and it looks fairly promising. The weather has been nothing short of perfect so far this fall, with day time highs in the upper 70's to low 80's. Temperatures at night have been cooling off into the 40's. These temperature consistently have enabled us to slowly ripen the crop over a period of time. This type of ripening reminds me of 2005 which is considered by many to be a very good vintage from Washington. It is still just the end of September and we have a whole lot of fruit yet to bring in, so as I have said before I am not ready to declare a great vintage yet.
We will finish bringing in all of the Merlot we will be taking by Sunday, with Boushey and Conner-Lee Vineyards picking. We have started bringing in Semillon from Stillwater Creek Vineyard and have picked a little Cabernet Sauvignon from Champoux Vineyard in the Horse Heaven Hills. Next week we will really start bringing in a good portion of Cabernet Sauvignon from warmer sights such as Red Mountain and the Horse Heaven Hills. Malbec, which I am finding out has many followers should start coming in next week as well.
This weekend, September 28-30 is the Columbia Valley Winery Association's "Catch the Crush" event, we hope to see many of you at the winery.
Cheers!
Charlie Hoppes - Winemaker+Owner

Growers - The Real Winemakers

2007-09-17T17:15:00.000-07:00

I had a chance this past weekend to spend some time in the vineyard with a few of our growers for Fidelitas and was I ever impressed. I think all too often, that winemakers get too much of the credit when it comes to wine quality when the real heroes are the growers who get us consistently great fruit. As I visited vineyards this past weekend I was struck by the dedication of Roger Gamache. He is sincere about trying to get me the very best fruit that his vineyard will provide so that I can make the very best wine possible. I saw the same dedication and attention to detail from Miguel Rodriguez at Weinbau Vineyard on the Wahluke Slope as well. The list of growers that we use at Fidelitas is a list of some of the best grape growers in the state and in each and every vineyard we see this type of dedication. The next time you read about how great a wine is from a winery, think about the growers and there immense contribution to the overall process.
Cheers!
Charlie