Winemaker Notes
Blend: 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2015 Dead Horse is a Cabernet Sauvignon-dominated cuvée (there’s 8% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot) sourced all from Red Mountain Vineyards and spent 21 months in 84% new French oak. Sweet crème de cassis, black raspberry jam, crushed violets, and graphite characteristics flow to a full-bodied, voluptuous, sexy red that has awesome purity of fruit, fine, sweet tannin, and a great finish. It's gorgeous stuff.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Lonely Heart Cabernet Sauvignon opens in the glass with aromas of cassis, burning embers, plum preserve and dried herbs. On the palate, it's full-bodied, velvety and ripe, with a generous core of juicy fruit and fine-grained structuring tannins. It's one of the more complete wines in the range and one of the most concentrated and characterful, but it's let down by a touch of back end heat. Let's see how it develops, but I preferred the Old Vines.
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Wine Spectator
Appealingly brooding, with blackberry, black olive and spice flavors that add richness and polish to a finish that's dense with refined tannins. Hands off for now. Best from 2020 through 2026. 2,200 cases made.
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Wine Enthusiast
A blend of fruit from Quintessence, Ciel du Cheval, Klipsun and Obelisco vineyards, the aromas draw you into the glass, with notes of luxurious barrel spice, black-cherry meats, high-cacao chocolate, blackberry, high-toned herb, crème de cassis, dried earth, coffee and graphite. The palate is loaded with sweet cherry flavors that display a slightly linear styling at first, fleshing out a bit over time.
Over a decade later, Mark Ryan Winery has grown in size, earned acclaim from wine-lovers and critics alike, and garnered respect from the state's elite producers. The goal, however, remains the same. Make delicious wines that represent the vineyard from which they come, making every vintage better than the last.
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
A coveted source of top quality red grapes among premier Washington producers, the Red Mountain AVA is actually the smallest appellation in the state. As its name might suggest, it is actually neither a mountain nor is it composed of red earth. Instead the appellation is an anticline of the Yakima fold belt, a series of geologic folds that define a number of viticultural regions in the surrounding area. It is on the eastern edge of Yakima Valley with slopes facing southwest towards the Yakima River, ideal for the ripening of grapes. The area’s springtime proliferation of cheatgrass, which has a reddish color, actually gives the area the name, "Red" Mountain.
Red Mountain produces some of the most mineral-driven, tannic and age-worthy red wines of Washington and there are a few reasons for this. It is just about the hottest appellation with normal growing season temperatures commonly reaching above 90F. The soil is particularly poor in nutrients and has a high pH, which results in significantly smaller berry sizes compared to varietal norms. The low juice to skin ratio in smaller berries combined with the strong, dry summer winds, leads to higher tannin levels in Red Mountain grapes.
The most common red grape varieties here are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Syrah, among others. Limited white varieties are grown, namely Sauvignon blanc.
The reds of the area tend to express dark black and blue fruit, deep concentration, complex textures, high levels of tannins and as previously noted, have good aging capabilities.