I checked my email last night, and a 2-year wait was finally over. We have been members of the my favorite winery, Fidelitas Wines, for over 10 years. We started in 2009 as members of their 8-bottle club, then bumped to their 16-bottle club (‘OPTU’) in 2014. The bumped membership was a gift to my wife. As of this morning, we officially made it into the 24-bottle club, called ‘MAGNA’.

It feels a little silly to be so excited by this, but I absolutely cannot help it.

It also feels pretty darned fantastic to support the best winemakers in the state.

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Our first foray into Fidelitas was in 2009. Heather’s father had won a silent auction for charity for a day-trip guided tasting in the Yakima Valley by Bob Woehler, a wine journalist in the Tri-Cities area of Washington State. Bob was in his late 70s, and his wife in her 80s, but still both active in the local charities and wine scene. Since Heather’s dad wasn’t much of a wine fan, he let Heather and I take the trip for him.

We met Bob and his wife, and they took us to 8 different wineries in the area, a good selection to be sure. His wife had packed a picnic lunch for us, and we went from place to place while Bob lauded over local winemakers. We had two favorites, Fidelitas and Chinook Wines. If Chinook had a wine club, we’d be members there too. Try her Cab Franc Rose, if you happen to go to a PCC and find it there.

Heather’s appreciation for a good Malbec was alive and well back in 2009, so after Bob gauged her tasting notes, we drove up to the Benton City tasting room. The wine hit us like a ton of bricks. Red Mountain is a well known AVA, but at the time, was still breaking out of the Yakima Valley mold. It was just so much more full and vibrant than so many wines we had tasted that day. We joined that day, and brought several bottles with us. I remember Bob’s wife winking at her “that’s a good choice for a first club, but a hard one to live up to.”

Bob’s wife was entirely right. We had only joined a second club almost eight years later, after our palettes learned to appreciate the variety.