WTN: Horsepower (an Open That Bottle selection)

[Jenise]

Horsepower is a Christophe Baron/Cayuse project wherein only horses are used in the vineyard. The wines are expensive (over $100). I bought three of this one and just amused myself reading the notes on CT. There are numerous raves as well as pans about the 2014 Horsepower The Tribe, including one from me on the first bottle we opened a year ago. The notes are so absurdly different it's as if they were two completely different wines. The good ones had plenty of ripeness, got like 97 points and were "just about perfect". The bad ones are mean and green with hard black licorice, which is what we experienced last night with our rack of lamb dinner. I'm not happy.

[David M. Bueker]

What's the grape mix?

Ouch, that just sucks.

[Jenise]

What's the grape mix?

This one's syrah.

[Jenise]

Ouch, that just sucks.

What really sucks is that my first Horsepower, an '11 syrah, was magical. So I went on the hunt and bought three more, this time from 2014, and 2 grenache for about $100 ea. Of those, I've had two bad syrahs, one bad grenache, and one merely okay grenache. I have one syrah left and as it's from the same batch/lot/barrel presumably as the other two, it too will be a loser. So once I open that I'll be what you might call .5 for 5. I wrote to Cayuse yesterday about it. Will advise if anything comes of it.

That reminds me--I still have several bottles of 1986 Mouton-Rothschild left over from the case I bought. All of them that I've opened so far have been flawed. Not corked, but probably cooked during transport. I bought them at first release and they've been in my cellar ever since. I haven't opened one in a while because so far it's been a depressing experience.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Paul, my reaction to the "depressing experiences" (we've all had them!) is to pop all the bottles and get them out of my hair. I hate staring at disappointments.

I opened another 1986 Mouton-Rothschild last night. As bad as the others. It went down the sink. Instead I enjoyed a 1986 Pichon-Lalande. Grumpy at first but opened up beautifully. There is no hurry to drink this one.

-Paul W.