Fidélitas Wines

Charlie Hoppes grew up in the Yakima Valley, less than an hour from Red Mountain. In 1982 he and his wife, Terri, made a couple of carboys of raspberry wine, followed by a Riesling in 1983; their first makeshift winery was the kitchen of Terri's father, Daniel "Fidelis" O'Neill. Hoppes left his job at Boeing to study grape growing and winemaking at UC Davis, graduating in 1988, and in 1990 he joined Chateau Ste. Michelle, working under Mike Januik. In 1993 he was promoted to head red winemaker and put in charge of the new Canoe Ridge facility in Paterson, Ste. Michelle's first large-scale premium red winery. From 1995 to 1998 he worked with the Antinori family on the initial vintages of Col Solare. In the winter of 1999 he decided to leave Chateau Ste. Michelle to start his own label, and in 2000 Fidélitas began with an initial 375 cases of a Cabernet-Merlot blend. Terri suggested naming the winery Fidelis, after her father; the name was changed to Fidélitas after the couple received a letter from Safeway, which owned the Fidelis trademark. Fidélitas means loyalty or faithfulness, the source of the winery's ring logo. Hoppes first visited Red Mountain at Kiona's Lemberger Days in 1989, and in 2005 he made his first 100% Red Mountain wine, a Merlot. In 2007 he bought 5 acres on Red Mountain, planting 3 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon and using 2 acres for a tasting room and parking lot, and in spring 2015 he bought an additional 10 acres. Fidélitas is family-owned and family-run.

• 1982: Charlie and Terri Hoppes make their first wine at home, in the kitchen of Terri's father, Daniel "Fidelis" O'Neill.
• 1990 to 1999: Charlie Hoppes works at Chateau Ste. Michelle, becoming head red winemaker in 1993.
• 2000: Fidélitas launches with 375 cases of a Cabernet-Merlot blend; the name, first planned as Fidelis, means loyalty or faithfulness.
• 2007 and 2015: purchases of 5 acres and then an additional 10 acres on Red Mountain.

Will Hoppes, Charlie's son, is Managing Director. He grew up at the cellar, left a corporate banking job and has been back at the family business for almost a decade. Mitch Venohr is the winemaker; he worked his first harvest at Fidélitas in 2010. Will Hoppes and Mitch Venohr work alongside Charlie Hoppes, the founder. Dick Boushey manages the estate vineyard, and Greg Giere is National Sales Manager.

• Founder: Charlie Hoppes.
• Managing Director: Will Hoppes. Winemaker: Mitch Venohr, at Fidélitas since the 2010 harvest.
• Estate vineyard manager: Dick Boushey. National Sales Manager: Greg Giere.

All Fidélitas wines are made from Bordeaux varieties grown on Red Mountain, from the estate vineyard and from 8 to 10 long-time vineyard partners, many of them family-owned, family-run operations. The estate, the site of the Red Mountain tasting room, was planted in two phases, in 2008 and 2015. Vineyard manager Dick Boushey worked with Charlie Hoppes to match varieties and clonal selections to its blocks, which are planted to Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc on deep, dusty soils. The winery's farm page gives its estate as 15 acres and its trade profile gives a 12-acre estate vineyard. In 2012 Hoppes made a Cabernet sourced entirely from grapes he had planted and grown himself. Ciel du Cheval, a mile down Sunset Road, was established by Jim Holmes in 1975 as one of the original plantings on Red Mountain; his son Richard now runs it. Heart of the Hill, established in 2006 on the south-western slope, is managed by the Williams family, who took over the Artz vineyard at the base of the mountain in 2019; Fidélitas buys old-vine Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon from Artz every year. Part of Blackwood Canyon was planted in 1984 by Mike Moore; the Corliss family of Corliss Estates has since taken over, and Fidélitas sources an old-vine Cabernet block and a single block of Malbec there. Quintessence, managed by Marshall Edwards and planted in 2010, surrounds Antinori Road on the eastern side of Red Mountain, with hardly any topsoil and many south-facing slopes.

• Estate: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc, planted in 2008 and 2015.
• Ciel du Cheval: established by Jim Holmes in 1975.
• Heart of the Hill (established 2006) and Artz: Williams family.
• Blackwood Canyon: partly planted in 1984 by Mike Moore; old-vine Cabernet and a block of Malbec.
• Quintessence: planted in 2010, managed by Marshall Edwards.

The estate has been part of the Sustainable Washington certification program since its inception. Every row is fitted with drip irrigation, which allows deficit irrigation: water is limited at precise times so the vines grow smaller berries. A vineyard crew made up mostly of women tends the vines from the first pruning in January through summer thinning and harvest. In the cellar, each vineyard block, about an acre in size on average, is picked, crushed and fermented separately, often in different oak vessels, and each of these fermentations yields about a barrel of finished wine. The team inoculates with yeast and adds sulfites to control its fermentations, and adds tartaric acid to help maintain stability and freshness. White wines are hand-picked, pressed and cold-settled for 48 hours, then racked mostly into neutral barrels with a small amount in new French oak, and fermented low and slow in a cold barrel room.

• Estate certified under the Sustainable Washington program since its inception.
• Drip irrigation on every row, used for deficit irrigation.
• Micro-lot fermentations: blocks of about an acre on average, each fermented separately.
• Whites cold-settled for 48 hours and fermented mostly in neutral barrels.

Fidélitas produces and bottles only Bordeaux varieties, released as single-vineyard, single-varietal bottlings and Bordeaux-style blends, with 25 to 30 limited bottlings each vintage. Annual production is just under 12,000 cases, about 90% of it red wine. The range includes Cabernet Sauvignon from Quintessence, Ciel du Cheval and the Fidélitas Estate; Malbec; Merlot, including a Quintessence Merlot; the red blends Optu Red Mountain and '4040' Red Wine; and the whites Red Mountain Sauvignon Blanc, Red Mountain Sémillon and Optu White. m100, a second label released selectively since 2003, is made from Columbia Valley fruit and includes a Cabernet Sauvignon and a rosé. About 80% of the wine is sold direct to consumers, mainly through the tasting rooms, online and a wine club of nearly 3,000 members. For more than 15 years Fidélitas was distributed only in the Pacific Northwest; it has since expanded into select national markets.

• Single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon: Quintessence, Ciel du Cheval, Fidélitas Estate.
• Red blends: Optu Red Mountain and '4040' Red Wine.
• Whites: Red Mountain Sauvignon Blanc, Red Mountain Sémillon, Optu White.
• Second label: m100 (since 2003), from Columbia Valley fruit.

Fidélitas describes its Red Mountain reds as showing full body, concentration and firm tannic structure. The winery harvests early by design and takes a gentle approach to extraction, aiming for wines that are "balanced, varietally expressive, and naturally high in acidity." A long-time industry friend once told the family the wines were like a velvet hammer, a phrase the winery uses for its aim: "Loaded with flavor and tannins but polished and shown just the right amount of restraint." Its whites, in its own words, share Red Mountain's "warm-climate tropical and fruit-forward profile, lifted by mouth-watering acidity."

Fidélitas runs two tasting rooms. The Red Mountain tasting room, at the estate, is at 51810 North Sunset Road, Benton City; the second is at 14200 NE 145th St, Suite B, in Woodinville's Hollywood District. Both offer seated tastings of one white and four reds.

• Red Mountain: 51810 North Sunset Road, Benton City, WA.
• Woodinville: 14200 NE 145th St, Suite B, in the Hollywood District.

Primary sources (producer's own site): https://www.fidelitaswines.com/family/, https://www.fidelitaswines.com/our-vineyards/, https://www.fidelitaswines.com/farm/, https://www.fidelitaswines.com/winemaking/, https://www.fidelitaswines.com/trade-media/, https://www.fidelitaswines.com/visit-red-mountain/, https://www.fidelitaswines.com/visit-woodinville/, and the winery's trade profile (PDF): https://www.fidelitaswines.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Fidelitas-About-Us-V2.pdf. Secondary sources: Washington State Wine Commission winery listing, https://www.washingtonwine.org/location/fidelitas/, and Decanter (Clive Pursehouse, published 25 November 2022), https://www.decanter.com/wine/wine-regions/washington/washingtons-red-mountain-2022-harvest-report-and-10-wines-to-try-491587/. Last verified 2026-10-18. Where the producer's site and a secondary source disagree, the producer's site governs.