Christophe Baron: from Cayuse back to Champagne

Christophe Baron has been busy. The Champenois transplant to the Pacific Northwest has built a worldwide reputation for his winery Cayuse, in Oregon’s Walla Walla Valley, where he began planting in 1997 and launched his first vintage in 2000.

The Walla Walla Valley AVA is one that crosses state lines. While more often associated with Washington, Baron’s vineyards are all located on the Oregon side. They include Armada, Sur Echalas, The Tribe and Hors Catégorie.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores of Christophe Baron wines in Oregon and Champagne

Cayuse takes its name from a Native American tribe, and its flagship site is the 4-hectare Cailloux Vineyard. The etymology of both names is the French word for ‘stones’. It was these that drew Baron to the region.

From the beginning, he has employed organic methods in the vineyard, although they are not certified. In 2002, Baron hired Philippe Armenier from noted Châteauneuf-du-Pape producer Domaine de Marcoux to engineer the switch to biodynamic methods.

Like Baron, Armenier felt a kinship with the terroir of the Walla Walla Valley, littered with the same type of galets roulés (pudding stones) also found in Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

Horsepower and Hors Catégorie

Starting in 2008, Armenier trained the vines on stakes – a technique called ‘sur echalas’ in French. The inspiration came from Northern Rhône producers that Baron adores, such as Pierre Gonon, Jean-Paul Jamet, Noël Verset and Marius Gentaz-Dervieux.

These vines were planted one metre by one metre and would become Horsepower Vineyards, which eventually included four sites: Sur Echalas, The Tribe, High Contrast, and Fiddleneck. As the name suggests, only horses work the total planted area – now 7.25ha.

The Horsepower Vineyards are generally well-shaded and deliver fruit that is not as forward as that from the Cailloux Vineyard. They can get physiological ripeness at lower sugar levels, and the wines often ferment out to a maximum of 13.5%abv. Fermentation is with little or no destemming of the fruit, and the wines age mostly in older 600-litre casks.

Baron’s most recent project is Hors Catégorie. Planted on two sites totalling barely 1ha, where the North Fork meets the Walla Walla River, these steep vineyards recall the Northern Rhône. The slope is so intense that some sections of the vineyards have to be cultivated by a winch.

As at Horsepower, the wines see whole-cluster fermentation and age in 600-litre demi-muids, the youngest of which will be a third-fill barrel.

Back to Champagne

If these three projects – all under the umbrella of Bionic Wines – were not enough (four, if you count No Girls, where Baron’s assistant winemaker Elizabeth Bourcier produces wines from the nearby La Paciencia Vineyard), Baron has now returned to his roots to produce Champagne Christophe Baron. Project number five.

Baron is the grandson of the founder of Champagne Baron Albert in Charly-sur-Marne, which his cousins still operate. His father took his share of the vineyards out of the family holdings and, since 2014, Baron has produced three stylish single-vineyard Champagnes.

His holdings total 3ha, all of Pinot Meunier, spread over the western villages of Crouttes-sur-Marne and Charly-sur-Marne (including the hamlet of Porteron). The youngest vines were planted in 1969, and the oldest in 1925.

Yields are low – in some years only 6,000 kg/ha, often just half the allowable quantity. Each of the three wines is fermented in used 600-litre casks, and bottled unfined and unfiltered in magnum.

Ageing is for a minimum of three years on the lees to make them all vintage Champagnes. The wines are all finished without dosage to emphasise the purity of the fruit.

The success of Christophe Baron across a range of styles and idioms is genuinely astonishing. One can only wonder, at this pace of innovation, what the future will bring.

Champagne to Cayuse and more: Christophe Baron wines

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