Description
From the stony Milton-Freewater sector on the Oregon side of Walla Walla Valley, the 2023 Cayuse Vineyards En Cerise Vineyard Syrah is a Walla Walla Valley AVA red from the United States made entirely from Syrah. Christophe Baron, born in Champagne and trained in French viticulture, founded Cayuse after encountering the area’s cobblestone ground near Milton-Freewater in 1996; Bionic Wines named Karin Gasparotti resident vigneronne in 2024 after the long tenure of Elizabeth Bourcier. En Cerise is a 10-acre vineyard planted in 1998 on the site of a former cherry orchard, where basalt cobbles and silty loam create a distinct alluvial fan profile. The vineyard is farmed biodynamically and forms part of the estate Syrah program. The 2023 wine was aged 18 months in French oak, 15 to 20 percent new. En Cerise places Cayuse’s work around individual estate parcels, Rhône varieties, and farming decisions that foreground stone-dominated Oregon vineyard sites.