Winemaker Notes
Our 2019 Dead Horse offers dense blackberry and cherry aromas on the nose with hints of eucalyptus, currant, and leather. Blueberry compote, dark plum, and slight chocolate flavors combine on the palate with oak notes of vanilla and baking spice. This bold,full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon has strong tannins that balance with acidity and create a long finish.
Blend: 92% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Merlot,1% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2019 Dead Horse (92% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Merlot, and splashes of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot) sports a dense purple hue as well as a great nose of pure cassis fruits, spice box, lead pencil, and chalky minerality. It's rich, medium to full-bodied, has a pure, clean, balanced mouthfeel, and ripe yet polished tannins. It's going to evolve for 15-20 years, if not longer. Best After 2022 Rating : 94+
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Dead Horse Cabernet Sauvignon was made with 5% Merlot and 2% Petit Verdot and marked the 20th vintage for the winery. Dusty black and dark red fruit aromas spill out of a glass with lavender and rose petal elements, hints of baking spices and notions of graphite, pencil shaving, and cinnamon. Full-bodied, the Dead Horse is complex, tightly wound and ready to go. It possesses juicy acidity with fine-grained tannins, which lift the expression across the mid-palate. A mix of flavors sways in and out of focus, with black plum, dried herbs and five-spice over the long, lingering and ever-evolving finish. Just over 26,000 bottles were filled after the wine rested for 21 months in French oak. Bravo!
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Wine Enthusiast
Ciel du Cheval fruit makes up the backbone of this wine. Aromas of ripe red raspberry, red licorice, chocolate, black cherry and ample barrel spice are followed by plump but graceful dark-fruit flavors that only ramp up in intensity with time. The tannins give a light squeeze. Best after 2028; it’ll have a long life beyond that. Cellar Selection
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Wine & Spirits
Mostly cabernet, this grows at Quintessence, Klipsun and Obelisco vineyards. It’s a brooding thing, with scents of tar and creosote overtaking the black fruit flavors: This has all the mass and compact weight of Red Mountain fruit.
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.