The 2007 Syrah En Cerise Vineyard (100%) is a glass-coating opaque purple color. On the nose espresso, smoked meat, olives, and garrigue-like aromas offer much to contemplate. Intense, balanced, and subtly elegant, it boasts a finish that just won’t quit. It delivers impressive immediate gratification, but those who can wait for 5-7 years will be well rewarded. A cult of personality seems to have developed in Washington over the past couple of years. Whenever the name Christophe is mentioned, everyone immediately knows of whom you are talking. The man himself, Christophe Baron continues to find new and interesting things to do. His latest vineyard project is well underway on hillsides not far from his present location. His estate, just on the Oregon side of the Walla Walla AVA, consists of five small but distinct vineyards (41 acres in total – with more on the way). Syrah and the Bordeaux varietals are the principal focus but some of the finest parcels of Tempranillo and Grenache grown in the USA are on this estate. Unfortunately, there will be no more varietally bottled Viognier which will now be used only as a blending grape. The vineyards are farmed biodynamically and much of the estate is planted on rootstock to prepare for the day when phylloxera works its way through Walla Walla. The wines are all fermented with indigenous yeasts and bottled unfined and unfiltered.Tel. (509) 526-0686; www.cayusevineyards.com

Aromatic and invited, almost jet black in color, this single-vineyard offering is a pungent mix of blood orange, rosemary and cassis. Dense and focused, compact and layered, it is structured very much like a Cabernet, but with a full palette (and palate) of Syrah fruit flavors.——P.G.(2/1/2011)—— 98