Growing up in Champagne as the eldest son of an established producer, Christophe Baron’s future seemed pre-destined. But before he took his place in the family business, Baron chose instead to travel and further his education. Following vintages in Australia and New Zealand, he moved onto the Pacific Northwest, where he was drawn to Oregon’s Willamette Valley, like a growing number of French winemakers. With a love of Pinot Noir and impressed by the region’s temperate climate, not to mention the freedom that the state’s wineries enjoyed, Baron prepared to put down roots. And then fate stepped in.

While visiting a friend in the Walla Walla Valley in Washington State, Baron was flicking through a copy of Hugh Johnson’s Wine Atlas. As he turned the page to the Rhône, Baron’s friend marvelled at an image of the Châteauneuf-du-Pape’s emblematic galets roulés, explaining that there were soils just like that in the much smaller Oregon enclave of the Walla Walla. So they drove there, and seeing the expanse of softball size stones, he didn’t hesitate.

Baron purchased the Cailloux vineyard in 1997. The deal was easy to make. No one wanted to buy it as it as the ‘soils’ were too difficult to farm. Baron describes 12 to 20 inches of pebbles and cobblestones on the surface and hundreds of feet of more densely packed cobblestones below that, all sitting on a layer of pure basalt. Yet Baron (whose nickname is Bionic Frog) had done his homework, deducing the difficult terrain would stress the grapevines, encouraging them produce ripe and intensely flavoured fruit. Not only would he prove the doubters wrong, but his Cayuse Vineyards and its resolutely terroir-driven wines would become one of the Pacific Northwest’s most celebrated estates.

Cayuse’s vineyards are located on the Oregon side of the Walla Walla AVA. The Cascade Mountains lie to the west, the Blue Mountains to the east, and the vineyards, planted on an ancient basaltic riverbed formed 13,000 years ago, are nestled in between. A year after planting his flagship Cailloux site, Baron planted the Coccinelle and En Cerise vineyards, followed by En Chamberlin and Armada vineyard in 2000 and 2001. More recently, he has gone even further, planting four single-stake vineyards with 12,100 vines per hectare using Champagne’s pre-phylloxera spacing. Grouped under the Horsepower label, the soils are worked by a team of five draught horses and, like all Cayuse’s vineyards, farmed according to an astrological sowing and planting calendar, and entirely without the use of herbicides, synthetic fertilizers, chemical insecticides or fungicides.

Mirroring the great growers of France, the practice here is meticulous and uncompromising. Baron works with a team of 45, meaning no stone is left unturned; excuse the pun. Biodynamic since 2002, yields across the Cayuse and Horsepower vineyards are tiny and rarely exceed 30hl/ha. Not surprisingly, the Rhône varieties like Grenache and Syrah thrive in these familiar soils and the Mediterranean-esque climate. As Baron’s practice is deeply inspired by old-school European tradition, then so is winemaker Elizabeth Bourcier’s approach in the cellar, where natural, whole-bunch fermentation in concrete and long aging in mostly worn foudres form the barebones of her hands-off approach.

Mainly selling out on release to those lucky enough to be on the mailing list (with a small portion held back for sale to restaurants and wine merchants), Cayuse’s wines are unlike any other we ship. Despite their celebrity, don’t come here looking for instant gratification, ‘gobs of fruit’ or an easy ride. They are deep, savoury and thought-provoking, not to mention intensely complex, wines from a very unique terroir and an uncompromising grower. Like the great grower wines of Europe, they require patience, and they require food.