Every year, the Cayuse thread seems to include a lot of discussion of if/when people get Bionic Frog. I dropped off the list after a few years and never got any, nor have I ever tasted it. I know it has gotten some of the highest scores and takes longer to get allocated than the other Syrahs. I also have seen some people say they prefer Armada. Understanding that this is very subjective, I’m hoping to see what people think. Do you prefer Bionic Frog to the other Cayuse Syrah bottlings? By a good margin? Are you confident that it isn’t just the rarity/demand aspect effecting your opinion? This one is pretty far out there, but has anyone blind tasted various Cayuse syrahs from the same vintage and formed any opinions? Do you think there’s a difference in quality, or just style? How would you describe the differences in style (Bionic Frog vs. others)?
Too many questions, I know. I’m interested to see opinions on whichever you’d like to answer. TIA.
As Mark noted we have blind tasted the syrahs including BF – I think we did 2008 and 2011 if I remember correctly. (We also did some early 2000 Syrahs, but I don’t think we included Bionic Frog – though I think we included Coccinelle which is the vineyard that provides the grapes for BF – in the early days when I said I wanted more BF I was told to buy Coccinelle, which I did, but they stopped making it in a separate bottle in 2003 I think). On the 2008 and 2011 blind tasting, I think it is correct to say that we could all single out the BF as a notch better than the others. Having said that, I sort of agree with AlexS in that if you are in the secondary market, Armada is the better value. I think Armada in good years can be close to as good (maybe better, not sure I would go that far) to the Frog. But when you see that the secondary markup on Armada is maybe 10-15 dollars (so a little over 100 a bottle) and BF is close to 200 and sometimes over that, then I think for value Armada is better. I do think that BF is the best of Christophe’s Cayuse wines. I have a more limited experience with Horsepower, but that limited experience suggests to me that the Horsepower Syrahs are comparable to BF – and while they are more expensive than BF from the winery, they are cheaper on the secondary market.
Perhaps we need to organize another blind tasting…
I have been getting Armada since '07 and BF since '13. since I like my Syrah’s with some age I have not had a BF yet. I will say however that if it is a cut above the Armada it will be a real treat because the Armada 's I have drunk ('07 and '08) have been outstanding.