Tasting Notes

This Pinot Gris incorporates fruit sourced from premier vineyards throughout Oregon’s North Willamette Valley including our own Lange Estate vineyard, as well as Durant, Yamhill, and Tukwilla vineyards.

Pale lemon yellow with green reflexes, the 2019 Pinot Gris Classique offers up a tantalizing bouquet of cantaloupe, pineapple, pear, bergamot, pea vine, and lemon grass. Crisp and lissome, with an acid-lit spine that gracefully unfolds across the palate, leaving in it’s wake eccentric rings of citrus fruit and limestone.

About Lange Winery and Vineyards

Don and Wendy Lange founded their eponymous winery and estate vineyard in 1987 with the purchase of a thirty-acre parcel in Northern Willamette Valley’s prestigious Dundee Hills. Their move north from Santa Barbara was precipitated by a few inspiring bottles from two of Oregon’s most iconic producers: Eyrie and Erath. A call to Dick Erath (whose phone number was listed on the back label) convinced the Langes to embark on a scouting trip.

Starting at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, they tasted their way up, stopping only when they reached the Dundee Hills.. The couple saw a real estate sign advertising a property suitable for farmland—the property’s elevation and aspect reminded Don of the Grand Cru vineyards of Burgundy’s Côte d’Or.

After producing their inaugural vintage in 1987 from Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Gris purchased from neighboring vineyards, the Langes planted their estate vineyard in 1988.

Forays into the brooks and streams of rural Iowa are among the childhood outings that helped to inspire Don Lange’s reverence for nature. The first time he cast a fly rod was in 1951 using a split-bamboo rod that was built by his grandfather.

As the Lange’s expanded their case production and vineyard holdings, Don followed in this grandfather’s footsteps and passed on his affection for fly fishing to his son, Jesse. Don traded his award winning award-winning barrel fermented Pinot Gris for Jesse’s first fly rod. When Jesse was older, he sold his fly rods to put himself through the winemaking program as an exchange student at New Zealand’s Lincoln University.

The play between the Lange’s passion for winemaking and fly-fishing has remained a constant thread in their story. At the beginning of their winemaking journey they chose to feature salmon flies on their labels, an emblem of their deepening Northwest heritage.

The brilliance and diversity of the flies reflects the varying terrain of Oregon’s great outdoors—the mountains, rivers, native fish, and wildlife, and, of course, the grapes the Langes are proud to produce. The emblem also underscores the Lange family’s enduring commitment sustainable farming practices and preservation of their environment.