Horsepower, a cult wine from Washington State.
Since its release, it has received rave reviews from various specialist magazines and has quickly become a star wine. In the United States, it is sold via mailing lists, and many people line up to eagerly await its release each year.
As the name suggests, Horsepower Vineyards plows its fields using only horsepower.
Christophe Baron, a vigneron (wine grower) from Cayeuse, has become the envy of wine connoisseurs around the world.
In his grandfather's time there were horses in every field.
Christophe was not only the first to adopt biodynamic practices in Walla Walla, but also the first to use horses for farming.
This field is characterized by its narrow, dense planting, which means that only horses can enter.
This is a rare label created by the Champagne genius Christophe Baron, who succeeded Cayeuse, and the fields are cultivated using biodynamic farming methods, entirely with horse power, without the use of any herbicides, chemical fertilizers, pesticides or fungicides.
Christophe's team represents tradition and history, and continues to write that history today.
This wine is Christophe's connection to his roots.
It is also a tribute to traditional techniques and family.
Like the Earth, it embraces all things, old and new.
That's Horsepower Vineyards.
Owen Bargreen 96 Points Beautifully textured and dense, this wine represents one of the ripeest vintages for this wine since it was first produced in 2011.
It is produced on stony land adjacent to the En Chamberlin Vineyard.
This wine offers flavors of black tea, iodine, aged ham, violets, wet gravel, blackberry cordial, and even a hint of oyster sauce.
This wine is full-bodied and ripe, a fascinating and complex Syrah that is enjoyable to drink now but also for the next eight or more years.
Drink from 2022 to 2030.
This vineyard was planted in the ancient riverbed of the Walla Walla River on the Oregon side of the Walla Walla Valley.
The topsoil is 30-46cm thick and is a mixture of silty loam and basalt boulders.
Beneath this lies a layer of purely compressed cobblestone, more than 30 metres deep in some places.
The vineyards have been farmed biodynamically since 2009 using Belgian and Percheron draft horses.
Aged 100% French oak for 15 months.
Horsepower is a cult wine from Washington State, made using 0% new oak barrels.
Horsepower Vineyards is a rare wine produced by Champagne genius Christophe Baron, who succeeded Cayeuse.
The fields are ploughed entirely by horse power.
Christophe's team represents tradition and history – and continues to write that history today.
This wine is Christophe's connection to his roots.
It is also a tribute to traditional techniques and family.
Like the Earth, it embraces all things, old and new.
That's Horsepower Vineyards.
Vigneron Christophe Baron first began practicing biodynamic farming in Washington's Walla Walla Valley in 2002.
Horsepower does not use any herbicides, chemical fertilizers, pesticides or fungicides. They work their vineyards with five horses, using vineyards trained to a single stake (called "sur echalas" in French) in a space of just 0.9m x 0.9m.
As the eldest son of Baron Albert, a Champagne House with a Hundred Years of History, Christophe's family has been farming the land in France's Marne Valley since 1677.
Until 1957, all vineyard work was done by horse.
Horsepower represents a return to this tradition, to an artisanal simplicity and purpose that has now been all but lost.
It's a window on the Old World, rooted in the New World.
Day in and day out, the only sound to be heard across all three fields is the thumping of hooves, a tradition that continues to plough and protect Horsepower's stony fields.