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Our 2019 letter to wiseacre members:

The 2019 wines are all finally hibernating in barrel which means our team is getting some much-needed rest. Really, we’re just drinking less beer and eating fewer burritos. But wine shipments stop for no person! And so here we are, having not shed a single burrito-pound yet, with our Fall 2019 Wiseacre shipment which contains all of our 2018 pinots. But before we dive into our vintage reflections, we wanted to reiterate one of the major perks of your membership in the Wiseacre Society. Between January 1st and August 31st, 2020, we are opening the calendar for us to come visit you. Whether you’re throwing a private dinner with friends, rewarding some of your best employees or team members with a get-together, or maybe even a gathering of the club you’re in, we want to bring our wines and our tasting experience to you and your guests wherever you are in the country. We’ll walk you through Harper Voit wines, indulge in wine stories, and even pour a library wine or two.

As we mentioned, the 2019 wines are in bed and it was a doozy of a vintage. Since 2014, the Willamette Valley has seen pretty consistently warm and dry growing seasons. The spring this year was a bit cooler however with average budbreak and bloom dates but far fewer summer heat spikes than the 2014-2018 vintages. The most notable differences were some pesky, heavy harvest rains that hit some of our sites hard while others stayed comparatively drier. The more European-like rainy conditions led to a slow accumulation of sugars but still allowed for full development of flavor due to the sporadic nature of the storms. There are lower alcohols this year because of said rain but overall, flavors are delightfully floral, decidedly red-fruited, with excellent texture and palate weight.

And of course you’ll hear more about those 2019 wines next year in your Fall 2020 shipment but we’d love to fill you in on the wines you’re seeing in your shipment today. We just tasted through this lineup for the first time since they’ve been bottled and we are ecstatic with the diversity and depth of these wines. As usual, we’d like to suggest that you wait to dig into your first bottle as, like every Patrick Swayze movie, they will only get better over time.

The 2018 vintage was another in a string of warm, ideal harvests. A long summer drought led to a differentiating phenomenon however when we saw acidities staying higher than we’d expect for prolonged, arid conditions. Conditions for harvest were dry which meant we were able to wait to pick for optimal ripeness, phenolic character, and moderate sugars. The wines are red-fruited with fresh, bright acidities and show like wines from a much cooler year. Underlying floral tones will only develop further with age as well. 

2018 Strandline Pinot Noir

With our single-vineyard pinots, we get to see the diversity of terroir of the Willamette Valley. As always though, it is with the Strandline where we get the best snapshot of the vintage as a whole. With fruit from the north of the valley to the south, warmer sites to cooler, higher and lower elevations, a smorgasbord of clones: Strandline conveys what makes our valley so extraordinary.

2018 Bieze Vineyard Pinot Noir

Bieze Vineyard continues to be our playground of pinot. Owner Jerry Bieze has planted, among others, two clones that aren’t very common in the Valley. The 2018 Bieze Pinot Noir is made up entirely of these two clones, Calera and 2AA, but with different variations of whole cluster and co-ferments. We’ve become cavalier in our use of whole cluster from this vineyard because year-after-year, it yields a depth of tannin character that we are continually thrilled with. Paired with the generous grape tannin that Calera gives us and 2AA’s fruit-forwardness, we end up with an impactful and balanced blend.

2018 Filament Vineyard Pinot Noir 

The Filament vineyard should hopefully be a familiar name to Harper Voit fans by now as it is one of our two leased vineyards (the other being Terrarossa). A 2.4 acre site planted in the Eola-Amity Hills, we are still growing our understanding of this site’s potential. While the site is small, it contains 5 intermingled clones that make a compelling field blend that delivers roundness, complexity, and the signature Eola hills acidity. 

2018 Bramble Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir

We are always excited to see how consistently this Ribbon Ridge site delivers. This 2018 vintage again provides a dark, concentrated wine with pleasant hints of spice. We used a blend of 115 and Pommard clones with a small amount of whole cluster as well.

2018 Terrarossa Vineyard Pinot Noir

Our highest elevation vineyard, Terrarosa Vineyard in the Dundee Hills, continues to be a favorite among those looking for a red-fruit forward wine and this 2018 vintage is no different. Delicate red-fruit flavors weave together with aromatic floral tones to create one of our more elegant and gentler wines. With varying percentages Pommard, Dijon 115, and Dijon 777, this wine is poised to age extremely well.

2018 Antiquum Vineyard Pinot Noir

We feel spoiled that we get to work with Antiquum fruit because it creates some of the most unusual and compelling pinots in the Valley. The diurnal shifts, the Bellpine soil, Stephen Hagen’s detail-oriented farming -- it all adds up to a Pommard and Wadenswil-blended pinot that is intense and dark but with an atypical pinot flavor profile like guava and peach. It continues to surprise us every year and is easily our most age-able pinot in a lineup of very age-worthy wines.

2018 Wiseacre Selection Pinot Noir, only 25 cases produced

Our barrel selection for Wiseacre this year comes from Bieze Vineyard. As mentioned above, we are continually learning about how Bieze fruit presents itself year-to-year and we had one particular barrel of Pommard that was both robustly fruity and dark but also has a structured tannin from the 30% whole cluster we included. It seemed like the most unique, standalone barrel from the year and we thought it would be perfect for any exclusive Wiseacre events and tastings. 

As always, we want to thank you for your membership in our Wiseacre Society. We feel privileged to have such dedicated supporters of our wines and we hope you enjoy this year’s shipment of the 2018 vintage.

All the best from the Harper Voit Team,

Drew Voit (Owner and Winemaker)

Jessica West (Associate Winemaker)

Nate Bentley (Cellar Master and Burrito Fan)