Cayuse
Vineyards’ Syrah Bionic Frog: 2000 – 2014&nbsp;

BY STEPHEN TANZER | OCTOBER 10, 2017

First things first: Christophe Baron is the Bionic Frog. That’s the nickname the Australians gave this
indefatigable Frenchman when he worked a harvest there in the mid-1990s and the
name he chose for what would become one of Washington’s top cult wines in the
decade that followed. Baron showed me a complete vertical tasting back to year
one (2000) in Seattle at the end of July. The wines stunned with their
richness, complexity and Old World wildness. This is truly one of America’s
handful of great Syrahs — and it’s not Baron’s only wine on my short list.

From France to the New World

Baron, whose extended family owns 60 hectares of vineyards in Champagne
and produces wine under their Champagne Baron Albert label, first came to Walla
Walla in 1993 as an intern at Waterbrook Winery. Subsequently, he served an
internship at Adelsheim Vineyard in the Willamette Valley, then worked the 1995
harvest in Australia’s Barossa Valley. His next stop was eastern Romania, where
he worked for a British wine company in late 1995. As he wasn’t interested in
taking over the family Champagne business, Baron then returned to the U.S. with
the idea of buying land and planting Pinot Noir in Willamette Valley. But on
his next visit to Walla Walla, he decided that the area he describes as “the
stones,” located on the Oregon side of the Walla Walla Valley delimited area,
would be his future. (This area was granted AVA status in early 2015 as “The
Rocks District of Milton-Freewater.” But the fiercely independent Baron wants
no part of this new appellation, as he believes it’s an overly political
construct involving excessively rigid TTB rules. “And they’re cobblestones, not
rocks,” he has always maintained.)&nbsp;

At the time, there had been no commercial vineyards for 40 years in
this area. Blue Mountain Cellar had been making Cinsault there, which they
called “Black Prince,” but a severe freeze in November of 1956 wiped out most
of the apple, cherry and plum orchards in Walla Walla Valley, along with its
grape vines. Baron’s intention was to create the first “modern-day vineyard” in
the stones.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1507650031319-Coccinelle+Vineyard%27s+cobblestone-rich+soil_AndreaJohnson+copy.jpg"> Coccinelle Vineyard's cobblestone-rich soil. Photo credit: Andrea Johnson 

Baron planted the 10-acre Cailloux vineyard in March of 1997, then
added Coccinelle (a 4.5-acre parcel of which 3.7 are now under vine) and En
Cerise (10 acres) in 1998, all on their own roots. He then added En Chamberlin
(10 acres) in 2000, with the vines grafted onto phylloxera-resistant rootstock,
then created the high-density, seven-acre Armada vineyard in 2001. Since those
early years, Baron has made major additional investments in Walla Walla Valley,
including the La Patiencia vineyard north of Armada (the No Girls wines are
made by Baron’s “assistant vigneronne,”
Elizabeth Bourcier) and his Horsepower project, from the densest vineyard in
Walla Walla Valley, planted at 3 feet by 3 feet and worked with a horse. His
most recent undertaking is a 2.2-acre Syrah vineyard he planted in 2011 on a
slope in the foothills of the Blue Mountains that’s so steep the vines must be
worked with a winch. The 2014 bottling of this new wine (called Hors Catégorie),
which I tasted on the same day as the Bionic Frog vertical, would give a
topnotch Hermitage a run for its money.

The Origin and Evolution of
Bionic Frog

The Bionic Frog Syrah emerges from the Coccinelle vineyard. The first
vintage was 2000. Baron also made a separate Coccinelle Syrah from the same
parcel of vines through 2003. But while the Coccinelle bottling was made from
destemmed fruit, the Bionic Frog started with 25% whole clusters and is now
much higher than that, typically at least 50%. As with Cailloux and en Cerise,
Coccinelle was planted with a Phelps clone of Syrah by way of Red Willow
Vineyard in western Yakima Valley.

The Rocks District of Milton-Freewater is unique for its well-drained
dark soil rich in basalt cobblestones. The mostly very thin layer of wind-blown
silty topsoil, which is mountain wash-off from the last 10,000+ years, varies in
depth within this area, but underlying it all is a deep layer of compressed stones
extending down hundreds of feet that the vines’ roots are able to penetrate.
The cobblestones on the surface absorb solar radiation during the day and
return it to the vines at night, promoting growth early in the season and aiding
the ripening process in late summer and early fall. The Coccinelle vineyard,
located in the southeast section of The Rocks not far from the town of
Milton-Freewater, is 940 feet above sea level — relatively high for The Rocks —
and as it is close to the foothills to the south, there’s a bit more soil on
the surface here. The result is less vine stress: Coccinelle is routinely the
first vineyard Baron harvests, and the Bionic Frog is characterized by its
broad mouthfeel and silky, almost Burgundian tannins.

At the outset, Baron made the Bionic Frog in a stainless steel tank. He
has never carried out a pre-fermentation cold soak, but because he picks the
fruit during the cool mornings and does not inoculate with commercial yeasts, the
fermentations typically take four or five days to begin. Baron practices what
he describes as “very light” extraction, doing some light pumpovers at the
beginning and some punchdowns later on, depending on the needs of the vintage
rather than on a set recipe. The Bionic Frog spends up to three weeks on its
skins, including some post-fermentation maceration. It’s racked following the
malolactic fermentation and then again for the bottling 18 months after the
harvest, although in some years there may be an additional racking in between
if the wine is too reduced.&nbsp;<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1507650133206-View+of+Coccinelle+Vineyard_AndreaJohnson+copy.jpg"> View of Coccinelle Vineyard. Photo credit: Andrea Johnson&nbsp; 

Baron’s original model for Bionic Frog was the legendary Cornas made by
his friend <a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/noel-verset-cornas-1985-2006-jan-2015?action=show&amp;controller=articles&amp;id=noel-verset-cornas-1985-2006-jan-2015">Noël
Verset</a>, who convinced him to vinify with whole clusters. Over the years, though,
Baron became less concerned with making a Cornas-like Syrah and more obsessed
with crafting wines that speak clearly of their place character. Purity of
taste and aromas is critical to Baron, and thus he quickly stopped leaving his
wines on their gross lees in order to make cleaner, more focused wines.

Baron used so-called “magic casks” made by Burgundy producer Dominique
Laurent’s small cooperage (thick-staved, very fine-grained barrels from old
trees in the Tronçais forest that Laurent personally selects) from the outset
through 2008, including about 20% new oak. He bought his first 1,200-liter foudre in 2009 and now ages each new
vintage of the Bionic Frog in a single foudre
and the rest in 600-liter puncheons, about 15% new. Beginning with vintage
2006, Baron has fermented the Bionic Frog mostly in concrete, which he feels
gives more mid-palate texture to the wine than stainless steel.&nbsp;

From the start, Baron has buried his low-growing vine canes in order to
protect his vineyards in The Rocks against the risk of damaging winter frost.
He uncovers them in early March, after the freeze risk has ended, cutting back
any affected trunks and re-training the canes that had been protected to
replace the parent vine. The local old-timers thought he was crazy to go to such
efforts, but in 2004, when frost in January cost many growers most of their
crop in The Rocks, Baron lost just 20% of his production (he actually accounted
for the majority of Rocks fruit that year). This past winter, when numerous growers
in The Rocks lost much of their 2017 crop to frost, Baron’s production was off
by just 10%.&nbsp;

Baron has farmed his vines organically from the beginning, and in 2002
he adopted biodynamic principals. The vineyards were originally certified by
Demeter, but Baron walked away from the association “because it was like having
a policeman looking over my shoulder — and the amount of money that it cost me every
year could have been better spent buying Burgundies.” Moreover, full biodynamic
methods in the winery forbid acid adjustments, and Baron has always done
judicious acidification of his musts from The Rocks. According to Baron, his
switch to biodynamic farming has resulted in “more salinity, tension and
verticality” in the wines. And in more recent years, it has allowed him to get
better phenolic ripeness at lower sugar levels, which is the Holy Grail in a
hot, dry region like eastern Washington.

Baron emphasized to me that he has always picked on taste and phenolic
ripeness, never on numbers. Although potential alcohol levels were consistently
high in the early years, Baron never added water to his must. “I don’t turn
water into wine,” he deadpanned.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1507650152419-Christophe+Baron+and+his+Bionic+Frog+copy.jpg"> 

Christophe Baron and his Bionic Frog lineup The Unique Style of Bionic Frog

The Bionic Frog is an explosively rich Syrah with a flamboyant Old
World character. Early on, says Baron, “it is more about the palate than the
flavor profile,” showing a generous, velvety mouthfeel with plush tannins and no
rough edges. “It’s spherical like Romanée-Conti, while En Chamberlin is more
like La Tâche and the Armada is like Richebourg,” he said with a straight face.
With bottle aging, the wine often develops a distinctive element of black
truffle juice, as well as the flinty, iodiney minerality shared by Baron’s
other Syrah bottlings from The Rocks. In my vertical tasting, the maturing
bottles showed floral/spicy/earthy balsamic qualities, as well as notes of
game, olive tapenade, pepper, mocha, woodsmoke and leather.

As the early vintages were high in octane, many consumers, including
some who had read about but never actually tasted the Cayuse wines, criticized
them for being too extreme or for not aging well. But I suspect that most of
these early doubters would be surprised to hear that during the recent string
of very warm vintages (2013 through 2016), the Bionic Frog has been bottled
with less than 14% alcohol.&nbsp;

The typical pH for the Cayuse Syrahs is also elevated — normally around
3.9, but sometimes 4.0 or even higher. But according to my vertical tasting of
Bionic Frog, only a couple of the earliest vintages are in decline and the more
recent vintages give every indication of evolving slowly and gracefully in
bottle for 15 years or more. To people who claim that the typical pH levels of
grapes from the Rocks are simply too high for making balanced wines, Baron maintains
that “the proof is in the pudding.” Although some winemakers are afraid to
vinify with whole clusters for fear of further raising their wines’ pH, Baron
is convinced that the stems add energy to his wines — or a vertebral column, as
the French often say. He also routinely acidifies his musts. “It’s ultimately
about the balance of the wines,” he summarized. “And those who use pesticides
and systemic chemicals are much more likely to make wines that are out of
whack, with angular tannins and limited aging potential.”&nbsp;

The iron and manganese in the soil at Coccinelle also contribute
qualities to the wine that provide lift, such as a range of mineral notes and blood
orange. Although the Bionic Frog is rarely austere on release, the vertical
tasting indicated that the strongest vintages will just be rounding into peak
form a decade after the vintage. Baron recommends that his mailing list
customers who are lucky enough to have an allocation of a single three-pack open
a bottle on release, then after five and ten years. He finds five to eight
years after the harvest to be the typical sweet spot for Bionic Frog. Typical
annual production of Bionic Frog is about 400 cases, and the current vintage
was released at a price of $105.&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/wines?sort%5Bdirection%5D=asc&amp;sort%5Bname%5D=id&amp;wine_filter%5Barticle_id%5D=1737&amp;wine_filter%5Bproducer_id%5D=4341&amp;producer=true">See All the Wines from Youngest to Oldest</a>

You Might Also Enjoy

<a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/vintage-retrospective-the-1997-napa-valley-cabernets-sep-2017">Vintage
Retrospective: The 1997 Napa Valley Cabernets</a>, Stephen Tanzer, September
2017

<a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/harlan-estate-vertical-at-naples-winter-wine-festival-sep-2017">Harlan
Estate Vertical at The Naples Winter Wine Festival</a>, Antonio Galloni,
September 2017

<a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/next-of-kyn-the-first-seven-years-2007-2013-aug-2017">Next
of Kyn – The First Seven Years: 2007-2013</a>, Antonio Galloni, August 2017

<a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/focus-on-washington-hot-times-in-the-desert-nov-2016">Focus
on Washington: Hot Times in the Desert</a>, Stephen Tanzer, November 2016

&nbsp;

Content

Engage

Vinous

Social