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Fidelitas to open Woodinville tasting room

By Andy Perdue on April 14, 2013

Fidelitas’ tasting room is on Red Mountain. (Photo by Andy Perdue/Great Northwest Wine)

WOODINVILLE, Wash. – Fidelitas Wines on Red Mountain is opening a tasting room in Woodinville’s Hollywood School district.

It is expected to open Aug. 1.

Owner/winemaker Charlie Hoppes said it will be in the same row of businesses as Purple Cafe, Dusted Valley Vintners and Trust Cellars. It will be just up the road from Chateau Ste. Michelle, Columbia Winery, Barking Frog restaurant, The Herbfarm and Willows Lodge.

“It is just amazing what you see when you go to Woodinville on Saturdays,” Hoppes said. “There are so many people there.”

Fidelitas’ second try on west side

Fidelitas’ new tasting room will be near Purple Cafe in Woodinvlle’s Hollywood School area. (Photo via Flickr/click for credit)

This is Hoppes’ second try at creating a Western Washington presence. A few years ago, Fidelitas opened a tasting room with several other wineries in the SODO district of Seattle at a business called Urban Enoteca. It was not a good fit for Hoppes, and he was in the space for less than a year.

“It just didn’t work out for us,” Hoppes said.

Late last year, Urban Enoteca closed its restaurant to focus its efforts on corporate events and weddings.

For Hoppes, coming to Woodinville is a a homecoming of sorts. Two years after earning his winemaking degree at the University of California-Davis, he was hired by Chateau Ste. Michelle. Ultimately, he became the red winemaker for the state’s flagship winery under head winemaker Mike Januik. Though Hoppes was based in the Columbia Valley – a three-hour drive from Woodinville – he spent plenty of time at Chateau Ste. Michelle.

Hoppes was the first winemaker to work at Chateau Ste. Michelle’s Canoe Ridge Estate winemaking facility in the Horse Heaven Hills when it was built in 1993. He left Ste. Michelle in 1999 to help launch Three Rivers Winery in Walla Walla. A year later, he opened Fidelitas.

Hoppes said the new tasting room will be a convenient location for reaching more of Fidelitas’ wine club members and key customers because of its proximity to the greater Seattle area.

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About Andy Perdue

Andy Perdue is the editor and publisher of Great Northwest Wine. He is a third-generation journalist who has worked at newspapers since the mid-1980s and has been writing about wine since 1998. He co-founded Wine Press Northwest magazine with Eric Degerman and served as its editor-in-chief for 15 years. He is a frequent judge at international wine competitions. He is the author of "The Northwest Wine Guide: A Buyer's Handbook" (Sasquatch, 2003) and has contributed to four other books. He writes about wine for The Seattle Times. You can find him on Twitter and Google+.