Putting your concierge to work

As most of you know, my position with Fidelitas doesn't just consists of helping members with shipments and orders. I get to serve as the concierge for our members and am available for trip planning assistance, gift giving services, party planning and much more. Recently, members have contacted me for a number of these services.

One OPTU member from Western Washington took advantage of the trip assistance feature. Working together, we found wonderful accomodations, restaurants and wineries for him to visit while travelling through Walla Walla, the Tri Cities and Red Mountain.

Some Faithful, Loyal, True members recently contacted me about helping them with some gifts for an annual dinner party that they put on. We created baskets of "comfort food" with Optu wines, individual cookbooks and cookie and brownie mixes.

Just yesterday, a few members contacted me about a red wine party they had coming up and asked for a few of my favorite appetizer recipes that pair well with red wine. Drawing on my sommelier training, along with years of hosting food and wine pairing parties, I think we found a few good ones that will please both the hosts and the guests.

I love the opportunity to work with our members in planning these fun trips, gifts and parties, and look forward to doing it some more! I just finished "Host a Tasting" kit with step-by-step instructions on how to host your own tasting party with your friends, that is available to members of the Fidelitas Wine Club. I can't wait for someone to try it out!

Isn't this incredible? Looking west from the tasting room at sunset, just last week.

Shipment time!

Today is batching day at the tasting room, which means that this is the day that we get every shipment ready to go out the door, whether they are being shipped or picked up. Here are a few big bits of news regarding our current wines:

• Your shipment consists of the 2006 eight syrah and the 2005 eight red wine. These are two fabulous wines that are each special in their own way. The 2006 syrah will be our final vintage of syrah at Fidelitas. That means all of our syrah fans (and I know there are a lot of you!) better stock up now because there won't be any to come in the future. The eight red wine is a phenomenal red blend that is dominated by cabernet sauvignon and merlot, and finished with cabernet franc and malbec. We have so few of these that we are only able to provide members with an additional 2 bottles for reorders. Trust me...it's worth it.
• We just released the 2006 Ciel du Cheval Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. This is a 100% cab that is 100% from Red Mountain. It's great now, but I'm already licking my lips thinking of what it will be in a few years.
• And here's the big news...we are almost out of the 2005 Champoux Cabernet! If you've been waiting to order more, wait no more. We have about 14 cases left, that seem to disappear every time I turn around.

The tasting room on Red Mountain will be open until 7pm tonight. If you're in the area, please stop by, taste the wines and say hello!

Ciel du Cheval Release

As I'm sure that most of you have heard by now, we are hosting the owner of Ciel du Cheval vineyard, Jim Holmes, at the Red Mountain tasting room on November 29th from 1pm - 3pm. This is such a wonderful opportunity to meet someone who has been an integral part not only in establishing Red Mountain and the now present AVA, but also the entire Washington wine industry. He has been a pivotal figure in the industry over the past thrity-odd years, and the quality of his grapes certainly shows it! Joining him will be the vineyard manager, Ryan Johnson, who is quite talented as well.
I will be at the tasting room for the weekend assisting with Thanksgiving in Wine Country, and then staying through the week for our December club shipment. We are staying open until 7pm on Thursday, December 4th in hopes to provide more of our members a time to stop by, taste the wines and pick up their shipment. I am really looking forward to seeing so many of our members!
Don't forget - we are offering free shipping for just one more week!

20Something

Well, I went into the 20Something event knowing that it would be an exciting night, and I definitely wasn’t let down. With over 70 wineries and close to 20 restaurants, there was plenty of wine and food to go around. The Washington Wine Commission did a great job promoting this event and had nearly 1000 people attend. I got to see a few friends from other wineries and even spotted Tom Douglas in the crowd. I did see a few wine club members there, one of which is also a Washington Wine Ambassador and did a great job helping all of the wineries load in at the beginning of the night.

I'm including a few pictures from the event that were posted on flickr, just so you can believe me when I talk about the size of the crowd!

looking out over the crowd

the wine bottle display in the middle of the room (I think these are all empty...)

taking a break in the back with a few other winery folks (I'm third from the left) including people from DeLille, Flying Trout and the new Hollywood Hills winery

Upcoming Events

In the excitement of free shipping last week, I forgot to mention a couple of upcoming events. This weekend, Fidelitas can be found on the road. Jessica G. will be at the Northwest Food and Wine Festival in Portland, which features over 600 wines and 50 restaurants. I will be pouring our wine at the Washington Wine Commission’s 20Something event in Seattle. I believe that there are still tickets available for both. If you live near Seattle or Portland and are able attend, please stop by and say hi to us!
I also wanted to mention that the tasting room is planning to stay open for extended hours on Thursday, December 4th. If you live close or will be in town, definitely plan to drop in, taste the new wines, and pick up your shipment a few days early. It will just be a fun, casual evening. I’ll be there that week making sure that the December shipment gets out the door, and would love to see a few of our members.
Below are a few pictures from production this fall that Jessica G. shared with me. Enjoy!

What a great idea

As I’m sure most of you have seen from the November newsletter that just came out, we are offering FREE SHIPPING from now until Thanksgiving. In my mind, this couldn’t have come at a better time. First, we have Thanksgiving looming in the near future, which always calls for great wines on the table. The 2007 Optu white would be a knock out with the wide variety of dishes that can appear on a Thanksgiving dinner table, while the 2005 Columbia Valley merlot is a bright, food friendly red wine. Then, just four days after Thanksgiving is December 1st, which means the start of a whirlwind of gatherings and gifts. A very smart friend of mine (who also happens to be a Fidelitas wine club member) always keeps a case of her favorite wine on hand during December. That way, when she’s running out the door to a holiday party, she’s able to grab a bottle from the case, tie a ribbon around it and have the perfect hostess gift without a last minute stop at the store.
We are also within 30 days of our next shipment, which means that you will receive an additional 5% off select wines. Between that and free shipping, there is really no excuse to not stock up now - I know my friend will be.

The Next Two Months

Every October, I make the same promise to myself: to have all of my holiday shopping done before Thanksgiving. Every December, I find myself waiting in hour long lines at stores and the post office, wishing that I had kept my promise. This year, I’m sticking to my promise and adding on to it by not only making the best use of my time during this wild season, but also to make the best use of my holiday dollars by sending out gifts that people will truly enjoy. Lucky for me (and my friends and family), I have access to great wine, which I am sure everyone will enjoy.
Our members have the opportunity to utilize a great gift giving services, where all they have to do is send me their list, and I can assist with creating unique gifts and shipping them directly to the recipient. Looking over a few packages, I was amazed at what a great deal the packages were once member discounts were added in.
I also think it would be great to host a holiday wine tasting party with friends, which is why I came up with everything you’d need to do it on your own – wines and instructions included!

Catch the Crush

Last weekend was a first for me. I survived a wild three days on Red Mountain at the tasting room during Catch the Crush. Our little modern shed welcomed more than 400 people over the span of Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was by far the busiest with about 250 people stopping by to visit. It was great to meet so many current members, as well signing up some new ones!

We poured five wines last weekend, while always keeping something special on hand for our members who came to visit. Of course, the two new Optus were featured, along with the brand new release of the 2007 Semillon and our Columbia Valley Cabernet and Merlot. If anyone is hiding 2005 CV Cabernet in their cellar, I’d encourage to pop a bottle open and see how much it is already maturing. It was pouring beautifully this weekend, and many purchased bottles to see how they’ll be in another year or two. A recently opened 2004 knocked my socks off.

As a fun addition to the weekend, we also hosted a beautiful winemaker dinner on the patio Saturday evening. The safari-themed dinner was part of an auction that benefited Washington Wine Country, and featured Chef Jason Wilson from the restaurant Crush in Seattle, John and Gretchen from Bookwalter, Tim and Kelly from Hightower and Charlie pouring our own wines. It was a great event that I was happy to be a part of. The table was set beautifully, the food was incredible and I think everyone had a great time.

For those who haven’t heard yet, we received our Wine Spectator subscription Saturday morning to find that the 2005 Fidelitas Champoux Cabernet just scored 92 POINTS!

It's shipment time - what a week!

I just got back from a week on Red Mountain getting ready for our fall wine club shipment. Since I started working with Fidelitas in May, after the Champoux shipment went out, this served as my very first time working to get a wine club shipment out the door. I swear I could have prepared all summer long, and still wouldn’t have been ready for what I witnessed last week. It was a flurry of database reports, phone calls and really a lot of fun. I emerged from our office there at the tasting room each evening feeling like a little shrew that hadn’t seen sunlight all day long. However, I’m now back at home feeling pretty successful, and am already starting to miss Jessica G, Marilyn and Nedra, who were my sidekicks throughout the process.

Most of you should be seeing your wines this week arriving via FedEx Ground if you have opted to have your wines shipped. For those of you who would like to pick-up, your shipments are ready to go at the tasting room whenever is convenient for you to stop by and visit. If you live in a warm state, or on the east coast, we are holding your shipments until October 1st. This is to prevent any potential heat damage from traveling across the country. Please be sure to contact me if you have any questions at all.

We also have some special library wines that were just released. Jessica G has some 2002 Optu red and 2003 Walla Walla cabernet sauvignon at the tasting room available for purchase. I was able to taste both of them while I was over there and enjoyed them both. I love our wines now, but it is always neat to see what a few years worth of aging can do for a wine. Also remember that we are within 30 days of the shipment, which means that most wines are available for an additional 5% discount. I’ve seen some really great deals go by. It’s also a great time to try your shipment wines and then stock your cellar with them.

Enjoy the Optus! They really are great. This weekend in the tasting room we had two groups debating whether the Optu white would be best with a lightly grilled halibut or crab cakes with mango salsa. If anyone wants to weigh in on the topic - or better yet, share the recipe you like the best – please do so! You can send it to me and I’ll try to get it posted for others to see.

Toasty Indeed!

We just hosted one of our annual events for members in Seattle. This party was designed as a way to say thank you to our club members, as well as a way for them to get to know one another a bit better. It also happened to coincide with the much anticipated release of our 2005 Optu red wine and 2007 Optu white wine (also our fall wine club shipment), which are both fabulous wines. While I spent most of the night running around in circles, trying to meet as many people as possible, filling orders and passing out shipments, I think everyone had a great time.

Our event “Getting Toasty in the City” was held at the Northwest Wine Academy - my old stomping grounds (along with a few other wine club members!) from when I took some classes there a few years ago. If you live in the Seattle-area, are interested in wine and want to enhance your knowledge, I would strongly suggest you check out their program. Not only were they kind enough to let us host our party there, but the school gathered together a team of absolutely wonderful volunteers who came to set-up, pour wine all night long, and then stayed to tear it all down again. A big thank you to Reggie, Stacey and all of the volunteers – I literally could not have done it without you!

We were lucky enough to host a few master coopers from Seguin-Moreau, the infamous cooperage from Napa Valley. These hard working guys did barrel toasting demonstrations throughout the evening. Guests were able to watch a barrel being made all the way from being a pile of wood, through assembly and toasting to the finished product. I heard a rumor about a wine club wine being made from the barrels we all got to see produced…

One of my favorite parts of the night was definitely the food. After seeing an Airstream trailer driving around the city, making lunch in different neighborhoods each day, and then reading about them in Food & Wine Magazine, I knew that we had to have Skillet Street Food join us at this event. Josh and his crew pulled their trailer into the parking lot and started cooking up a storm. They even featured two dishes to pair with our new releases that evening: THE BURGER was incredible alongside the Optu red and their PRAWN PO’BOY was awesome with the Optu white wine. There was also a caprese salad and herbed fries that I managed to taste between tasks (thank you to Ben and Dara for making that happen!).

As I mentioned earlier, I got to meet so many wonderful people. Thank you to everyone who came that night and made it such a special event. A really BIG thank you to club member Laurie Hodges who took all of these wonderful photos that you’re seeing in this post (along with the pic of me at the top). Also, thanks to Duane at Winefoot and Doug and Josh with Wino Magazine for all of their kind words. It was great to have you there. Next time I see everyone, please take the time to come up and say hi!