Although Fidelitas is not a Woodinville winery per se, we’ve been big fans of their wines for several years. In addition, Hoppes wines could conceivably be said to have a Woodinville pedigree. Charlie spent eight vintages working with Mike Januik at Chateau Ste. Michelle.

Fidelitas creates “Bordeaux style wines from some of the best fruit grown in Washington’s Columbia Valley.” Hoppes winemaking diary provides insights into the process they use and the vineyards that provide them with fruit. If you want an inside look at how great Washington wine is made, subscribe to this blog. If you haven’t tasted their wine, you should add Fidelitas your shopping list.

Regrettably, the blog is a blogspot blog which we’ve removed from our normal searches and have advised clients to do the same due to the massive number of spam blogs being created with blogspot.

We’ll send them a copy of our book and encourage them to leverage the awesome power of WordPress!

Appellation: Columbia Valley

Planted in 1973, this 660-acre vineyard owned by Chateau Ste. Michelle has a lot of history behind it.

In the notorious winter of 1979, most of the vineyard was lost after a straight month of subfreezing weather. Undaunted, owner U.S. Tobacco replanted to the vineyard - this time ripping the ground several feet down so the roots could grow deep.

Appellation: Columbia Valley

The youngest vineyard on this list is Stillwater Creek, a 245-acre vineyard in Washington's Frenchman Hills. The Frenchman Hills are on the Royal Slope, a region north of the Wahluke Slope. Steeply sloped in some areas - as much as 22 percent in some areas - Stillwater Creek was planted in 2000 at the urging of former Chateau Ste. Michelle winemaker Mike Januik. Januik makes wines for his eponymous winery as well as Novelty Hill Winery in Woodinville, Wash. Novelty Hill is owned by the Alberg family, which owned the sagebrush-covered land that became Stillwater for 40 years before Januik saw it. Now in its seventh year, Stillwater Creek already is highly allocated by dozens of boutique wineries across Washington, especially top producers in Walla Walla and Woodinville.

It's the day after Labor Day, and wine grape harvest in Washington should kick in today. We heard scattered reports about some white varieties (primarily Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris) being picked late last week, but the real work should begin now.

I was chatting with a couple of Washington winemakers today, and both indicated that some Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris would be harvested before the weekend.

This is slightly ahead of schedule, but these two white wine grapes don't necessarily need to get up to 24-25 brix to make delicious wines.

This from winecountrywashington.org:

Did you know?
Together with the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, The Washington Wine Industry Foundation, released a 2006 Wine Report showing, among other statistics, the top reported varietals in inventory amongst Washington wineries. In first place at 23.7% was still Merlot. Chardonnay was a close second at 22.4% and Cabernet Sauvignon made up 19.4% of the inventory in third.

Source: Washington Wine Commissionn

Woodinville Wine Country is poised to take its marketing and promotions efforts to the next level, as it has hired Cynthia Daste as its executive director.

The world's largest producer of Riesling is taking its love for the most noble of white wine grapes to an entirely new level. Ste. Michelle Wine Estates is playing host to the inaugural Riesling Rendezvous starting Sunday, June 24, and running through Wednesday, June 27.