WW&S 20th Anniversary Series: Lange Estate Winery Masterclass with Jesse Lange - Delafield

Quiet Credibility Earned the Hard Way: Original Estate Vineyards, Continuous Stewardship, and the Long Arc of Dundee Hills Pinot Noir with Jesse Lange

We are pleased to invite you to an exclusive masterclass with Jesse Lange, second-generation vintner and Head Winemaker of Lange Estate Winery, one of the founding estates of Oregon’s storied Dundee Hills.

Twenty years ago, Waterford Wine & Spirits opened its doors with a simple, ambitious belief: that Wisconsin deserved access to the world’s great wines, not as distant trophies but as living, shareable experiences. Two decades later, that belief has grown into a community built around curiosity, trust and the joy of discovery.

To mark our 20th anniversary, we’re doing what we love most: welcoming some of the world’s most revered wineries and putting them where they belong — at the tasting table with you.

Lange Estate was established in 1987 by Don and Wendy Lange, who relocated from Santa Barbara to Dundee at a formative moment in Oregon wine history. They planted thirty acres of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Gris, including what remains the estate’s original Pinot Noir vineyard—now over thirty years old, planted on its own roots to classic Pommard and Wädenswil clones, and still forming the backbone of Lange’s house style today.

As part of Oregon’s second wave of pioneering winegrowers, the Langes helped shape the rise of the Dundee Hills into one of the world’s most compelling regions for Pinot Noir. With backgrounds in literature, music, and the arts, Don and Wendy brought a creative, humanistic sensibility to their work, drawing inspiration from early Oregon icons such as The Eyrie Vineyards and Erath, and growing alongside the region as it earned international recognition.

Today, Lange Estate is led by Jesse Lange, who was immersed in vineyard life from an early age. Supported by a grant from Oregon State University, Jesse pursued formal winemaking studies at Lincoln University in Christchurch, New Zealand, before gaining hands-on cellar experience at Santa Barbara Winery. He later returned home to Oregon to continue the family legacy.

Jesse Lange will lead a guided, multi-vintage tasting of Lange Estate’s single-vineyard Pinot Noirs, an experience rarely offered in this depth and format. In a lineup that stands alongside seminars featuring some of the most celebrated names in the global wine canon, this masterclass offers something equally compelling but far less common: the opportunity to trace the long arc of an original Dundee Hills estate through time, site, and stewardship.

These wines are not built for spectacle. They are built for continuity, restraint, and longevity—qualities that only reveal themselves when vineyards reach maturity and winemakers commit to listening rather than imposing. Tasted across vintages, Lange’s Pinot Noirs speak with increasing clarity, showing how clone, soil, and age converge into nuance rather than volume.

This is a masterclass for those who understand that true greatness in wine is often cumulative rather than declarative—and that some of the most meaningful bottles in the room are the ones still quietly telling their story, decades in the making.