Estate Red
⏳ Drinking Window
Typically best enjoyed 5 to 15 years from the vintage release, allowing the robust tannins to soften and complex tertiary notes to emerge.
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
grilled ribeye steak, roasted lamb chops, braised beef short ribs
✨ Technical Specifications
The Fidelitas Estate Red is a profound expression of the winery's home turf on Red Mountain, Washington State's smallest and most distinctive appellation. Planted in 2009, the Estate Vineyard sits on a gentle, southwest-facing slope that basks in intense desert sunlight, tempered by the persistent, cooling winds sweeping through the Columbia Gap. This extreme terroir, characterized by low-nutrient gravelly soils and scarce rainfall, forces the vines to struggle, producing exceptionally small berries with thick skins. The resulting wine is a masterful Bordeaux-style blend that captures the raw power and structured elegance of Red Mountain. Crafted by winemaker Charlie Hoppes, the Estate Red undergoes meticulous fermentation and aging in predominantly French oak barrels, creating a wine of remarkable depth, dark fruit concentration, and a signature mineral-driven finish that reflects the ancient volcanic basalt underlying the vineyard.
🍾 About the Producer
Fidélitas was founded in 2000 by veteran Washington winemaker Charlie Hoppes, formerly the head red winemaker at Chateau Ste. Michelle. Joined by his son Will Hoppes, the winery embodies an unyielding dedication to Bordeaux grape varieties cultivated exclusively within Washington State's prestigious Red Mountain AVA. Situated on warm, southwest-facing slopes, the region's intense sunlight, fierce winds, poor gravelly loam soils, and profound diurnal temperature fluctuations foster thick-skinned berries with formidable concentration and natural acidity. The estate vineyard, first planted in 2008 and farmed sustainably with Sustainable WA certification, is complemented by premier fruit partnerships with iconic sites such as Ciel du Cheval and Quintessence. Winemaking employs micro-lot fermentations in oak and neutral barrels, yielding structured, deeply expressive wines. The estate's benchmark portfolio is anchored by the flagship Optu Red and Optu White blends, vineyard-designated Cabernet Sauvignons, and varietal Malbecs.
🍇 Grapes
Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc