In 1996, Christophe Baron of the Baron Albert family, a champagne house that has been in business for hundreds of years, fell in love at first sight with this area of Walla Walla, a place with which he had no connection.
Since then, he has been cultivating this land, littered with softball-sized rocks, biodynamically, following his own beliefs, despite being looked at strangely by those around him.
It has now appeared on the covers of wine magazines, won numerous awards, and become a cult wine coveted not only in Washington State but around the world.
In the United States, it is rarely seen in stores and is sold through mailing lists.
This is an extremely rare wine series that sells out immediately after being imported into Japan.
"Camaspero" is a tribute wine to Camaspero, chief of the Cayuse Indians, the indigenous people of this region, and was first released in 1997.
<International Wine Cellar Stephen Tanzer> It has firm, ripe tannins and an amazingly long-lasting aroma.
It pairs perfectly with aged beef.
Cayeux Vineyards Christophe named his first vineyard, and the first vineyard in the Milton-Freewater AVA, Cobblestone Vineyard, but this was already a trademark in the United States, so he renamed it Cayeux Vineyards, which has the same meaning in France.
Planted: 1997 Area: 3.4 hectares Spacing: 3 x 1.2m Density: 2,690 vines per hectare Altitude: 265m An Celies Vineyard The 4 hectare An Celies literally translates to "cherries" and was a cherry orchard before the vines were planted in 1998.
They grow grapes for Bordeaux blends, including Syrah.
Planted: 1998 Area: 4 hectares Spacing: 3 x 1.2m Density: 1,089 vines per hectare Elevation: 265m The vineyard is located on the ancient riverbed of the Walla Walla River on the Oregon side of the Walla Walla Valley.
The topsoil consists of 30-46cm of a mixture of silty loam and basalt boulders.
Beneath this lies a layer of compressed cobblestone, several tens of metres deep in places.
Born into the Baron Albert Champagne House, Christophe Baron's family has been working the land in France's Marne Valley since 1677.
He had planned to take over the family business, but those plans were thwarted one April morning in 1996 when he set his sights on the softball-sized boulder-strewn fields of Walla Walla, near the Oregon-Washington state line.
The terroir reminded him of the cobbles of the southern Rhône Valley and Châteauneuf-du-Pape in his native France.
Christophe purchased the property in 1997 and planted the first vines.
"People were saying I was crazy," he recalls.
"But we knew that to get the best grapes, the vines would have to struggle in difficult soil.
He named the operation Cayuse Vineyards after the North American name "cailloux," which means "stone" in French.