By Duane Pemberton

Fidelitas’ Optu has formed a nice little cult-following for itself as it has a tradition of being one of the finer bottles of red vino from WA State. Winemaker/Owner, Charlie Hoppes is very passionate about Optu and seems to find a way to put a small amount his persona in each bottle.

Optu is a blend that Charlie and his team do that combines fruit from six top-vineyards in Columbia Valley.

Technical Data:

• Blend: 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot, 9% Cabernet Franc
• Vineyards: Champoux, Kiona, Weinbau, Stillwater, Conner-Lee and Boushey
• Cooperage: :The wine was racked to 100% small oak barrels (French and American), with 50% new oak, and was barrel-age for 22 months with four rackings.
• Alcohol: 14.9%
• Release Date: September 2009
• Price: $40 ($34 if you’re part of their wine club)

Nose: Cherries, old church pews, forest floor, mushroom musk, licorice, blackberries, vanilla, toasted pomegranate.

Taste: If you could make a hybrid red fruit of cherries, raspberries and rhubarb then that’s exatly what you’d have on the initial attack. Stellar red fruits coming through along with flavors of white pepper. The mid palate brings on an almost saddle-soap character with a slight vanilla-creame action but the balance of acids and tannin structure keep it from going out of control. Very solid finish that lasts for days that leaves kick-ass notes of cinnamon, cedar, cloves and even a nice hint of shoe-polish.

W.E.P. Rating: 100%

On the web: www.fidelitaswines.com

By Duane Pemberton

Like many small wineries, the husband and wife team of Pondera Winery in Kirkland Washington is built on the dreams, aspirations of making their passion into something they can do full-time. It’s wineries like this that are the backbone of the wine industry and clearly some of the more-fun ones to keep an eye on.

Winemaker, Shane Howard, works with some of the State of Washington’s top vineyard sites to source fruit from and stays out of the way as much as he knows how as to reflect the terrior of each vineyard site.

If you ever find yourself in the greater Kirkland WA area, I’d highly encourage you to stop by their winery and check out their wines!

2006 Sericus – W.E.P. Rating: 90%

Technical Data:

• Grapes: 55% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc and 3% Malbec
• Price: $30

Nose: Sour cherries, plums, pluot pulp, pepper, a little bit of plastic action figurine, cinnamon, cloves and a real sense of tar-bubble.

Taste: An old, leather-bound bible with an obvious sour cherry component coming through as well. The middle palate picks up some sour-patch candy action with the plout and an almost skittles flavor coming through. The finish remains strong and lingers quite well. This is a new-world style wine that won’t cater too well to the old-world folks but it does present itself for what it is – rather well.

2007 Sangiovese – W.E.P. Rating: 75%

Technical Data:

• Grapes: 78% Sangiovese and 14% Cabernet Sauvignon
• Price: $29

Nose: Black pepper, plum-sauce, blueberries, chocolate, coffee and spice.

Taste: This is a Sangiovese that has a strong fruit-forward character that brings on the classic black pepper, plums, raspberries and cocoa. Good mid palate transition, however, it does get a bit disjointed in the back-end with too much heat and acids that aren’t balanced. This could be a wine that would actually be far better in a few more years.

On the web: www.ponderawinery.com