SKU: 03269

Horsepower Vineyards The Tribe Vineyard Syrah 2013

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750ml

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Category	Red Wine
Varietal	Syrah
Origin	United States, Washington, Walla Walla Valley
Brand	Horsepower Vineyards
Alcohol/vol	13.6%

Horsepower Vineyards is about tradition, history, and about making history. It’s a connection between a vigneron and his roots. An homage to craft and family. An embrace of the earth that seems at once old-fashioned and new. And at its simplest, it’s a man slowly working the vineyard with his horse, just like generations before him. Tradition isn’t an abstract concept to Christophe Baron, founder of both Cayuse Vineyards and Horsepower Vineyards—he was born into it. The oldest son of the centuries-old Champagne house, Baron Albert, his family has worked their land in the Marne Valley of France since 1677. As recently as 1957 horses still did all of the vineyard cultivation.

Horsepower represents a return to that time, to a simplicity of craftsmanship and purpose that has been largely lost in the modern translation. It’s a window to the Old World —right here in the new. Adhering to biodynamic principles, which encourages the self-nourishing interrelationship of earth, plants and animals, has been a central component to vigneron Christophe Baron’s farming philosophy ever since he pioneered biodynamic farming in the Walla Walla Valley in 2002.

Horsepower is farmed according to an astrological sowing and planting calendar, and entirely without the use of herbicides, synthetic fertilizers, chemical insecticides or fungicides. Five draft horses cultivate The Tribe Vineyard, a 3 acre Syrah vineyard that is planted one vine per stake. Spacing is 3.5 feet by 3.5 feet, totaling 3,555 vines per acre.

At Christophe Baron’s family vineyards in the Champagne region of France, it wasn’t until 1957 that his grandfather’s last horse was finally retired. His name was Bijou, which means “jewel” in French, and his legacy has been reborn at Horsepower. With Cayuse Vineyards, Baron was not only the first vigneron in the Walla Walla Valley to fully implement biodynamic farming practices, but also the first to use horses for cultivation. Zeppo arrived in 2008, and Red followed a year later. They cultivate tightly spaced, 19th century-style vineyards that only they can navigate, using specialized farming equipment created by a blacksmith in Burgundy, France.

Wine Enthusiast

we96

This wine is aromatically brooding but precise, with notes of umami, black olive, smoked ham, crushed violets, funk and peat. The flavors are hefty and concentrated-with notes of fire pit and wet stone-while showing earth-shaking depth and intensity. The finish stretches out as long as you care to count. This is a complete knee buckler.

December 31, 2016

Wine Advocate

wa96

More straight and focused than the Sur Echalas Vineyard, the 2013 Syrah The Tribe Vineyard is slightly darker in color, with lots of gunpowder, blackberry, blueberry, smoked game and beef blood aromas and flavors. Full-bodied, yet elegant and silky, with a great finish, it's a gorgeously complex, balanced and complete Syrah that has lots of Rocks character, as well as 15 years of more of longevity. I have a slight preference for the Sur Echalas Vineyard Syrah, but these share lots of similarities and are both brilliant wines.

June 2015

Wine Spectator

ws95

Supple, complex, open-textured and refined, with bacon and black olive overtones to the plum and currant flavors, finishing with harmony and precision. Has depth and refinement. Drink now through 2023. 470 cases made.

September 30, 2016

Vinous

(from vines planted 3,555 to the acre, next door to Christophe Baron's En Chamberlin vineyard): Highly nuanced aromas of cherry, raspberry, smoked meat, charcoal and black licorice. Tightly wound and showing little early sweetness; an extremely backward Syrah in a decidedly Côte Brune style, with savory mineral and steak tartare notes holding the upper hand over primary dark fruits in the early going. Finishes with dusty tannins and strong salinity. This wine has a pH of 4.1, according to Baron, but I would nevertheless describe it as very young. Still, will it ever show the sweetness of the 2012 version?

November 2016