Winemaker Notes
Blend: 93% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot, 2% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Dead Horse (95% Cabernet, 5% Merlot, and 2% Petit Verdot) shows the pure, elegant, clean style of the estate nicely, and it benefits beautifully from time in the glass. Lots of dark, smoky currant fruits as well as tobacco, gravelly earth, and chocolate notes emerge from this medium to full-bodied, nicely concentrated, yet elegant and balanced beauty that will evolve for 15 years or more.
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine is a blend of fruit from Quintessence, Ciel du Cheval and Klipsun Vineyards. The aromas draw you into the glass, with notes of mocha, bittersweet chocolate, dark fruit and sprinklings of savory spice. Decadent, creamy-feeling dark-fruit flavors follow. Give it some time in the cellar to see it do its stuff. Best after 2024. Cellar Selection.
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James Suckling
Ripe blackcurrants, cassis, milk chocolate, tar and hazelnut on the nose. It’s full-bodied with firm, polished tannins. Rich, velvety core of dark fruit. 93% cabernet sauvignon, 5% merlot and 2% petit verdot. Drink now or hold.
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.