One year I happened to be in Walla Walla the same weekend as Cayuse’s annual open house- the only weekend of the year when the winery is open and wines for the mailing list can be picked up.  It was an amazing sight to see!  So-many-people!  All rabid fans of these revolutionary, truly ground-breaking wines: The wines that truly put Washington State on the world wine map!  I, personally, have only had opportunity to try a few, but the ones I have tried have been among the most impressive examples of Syrah I’ve ever had- from anywhere!  How they manage that much intensity, depth and aromatic complexity without a trace of heaviness is something I think every winemaker in the world wonders about.  It takes a level of commitment few are able to match. 

These wines are rarely-if ever- available at fair prices to anyone other than those on the Cayuse mailing list so it’s a wonderful thing that, at last, Christophe as made an arrangement to bring them to California at realistic prices.

Give yourself (or someone you love) the gift of Cayuse this holiday season!

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Cayuse, Christophe Baron’s flagship label and an embodiment of his story as the French vigneron who foresaw the potential of Walla Walla's stone soils in the ancient alluvial fan of the Blue Mountains. When he first saw the round, tennis-ball sized stones in 1996, he drew a parallel with Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and decided there and then to be the first to plant vineyards. The stone soils are extraordinarily deep – hundreds of feet; the vines struggle for water (they grew 10 feet deep in roughly 20 years) and produce a concentrated, mineral character. He chose the name "Cayuse" in tribute to the Indian tribe of the region, with double entendre cailloux, the phonetic pronunciation of "stones" in French. The Cayuse line features Syrah from various parcels – each one distinct – and a small selection of well-matched varieties such as Grenache, Tempranillo and Bordeaux varieties. 

·    Horsepower, Grenache and Syrah bottlings from high density vineyards cultivated by draft horses. The wines live up to their name – they are intense, bold and sophisticated with ultra- smooth tannins and a sleek style. One might be surprised that the alcohol of these wines is at most 14.1 percent, yet the better explanation for their prodigious style is vine density (from 3,555 to 4,840 vines per acre with as little as 3' x 3' spacing), biodynamic farming, and of course, the stony soils. They are truly awe-inspiring. 

·    Hors Catégorie, a label for the single Syrah bottling made from Christophe’s ambitious Hors Catégorie vineyard project. With a roughly 60 degree slope, the vineyard is the first to be planted on the precarious slope along the Walla Walla River. The name is inspired by the eponymous term in French bike racing for climbs too steep for categorization. This wine is the top of Christophe’s Syrah line and is simply unforgettable.