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
Established in 2000 by veteran Washington winemaker Charlie Hoppes, Fidelitas is an artisanal winery dedicated to showcasing the distinct terroir of the Red Mountain AVA in Washington State. True to the Latin meaning of its name—faithfulness—the estate adheres to a philosophy of unwavering fidelity to grape varietal and vineyard character. Sourcing fruit from premier sites such as Quintessence, Ciel du Cheval, and the Fidelitas Estate Vineyard, the winery utilizes precise small-lot fermentation and focused oak aging. Fidelitas is celebrated for its powerful, structured, and age-worthy Bordeaux-style reds, most notably its acclaimed single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignons, Malbec, and signature Optu Red blend.
🍇 Grape Varieties
Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc