Fidelitas to open Woodinville tasting room

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

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.