Winemaker Notes
#45 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2019
Some of Washington State’s finest vineyards have provided fruit for the 2016 The Dissident. The Dissident is a wine that we create to complement the Dead Horse and Long Haul. People sometimes think The Dissident is made up of wines that don’t make the cut in the final blends of the Dead Horse and Long Haul, which couldn’t be further from the truth. The same vineyards, barrels and attention to detail go into crafting The Dissident as go into every wine in the Mark Ryan program. While the Dead Horse and Long Haul are crafted to be supremely ageable, The Dissident is built to offer a more approachable wine younger in its development
Blend: 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Merlot, 17% Cabernet Franc, 3% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2016 The Dissident is 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Merlot, 17% Cabernet Franc, and 3% Petit Verdot from a multitude of vineyards spread throughout the Colombia Valley. Its saturated purple color is followed by classic Cabernet Sauvignon notes of crème de cassis, cedarwood, lead pencil, and vanilla spice. Deep, medium to full-bodied, beautifully pure and seamless on the palate, with no hard edges, it's another beautiful wine that's accessible today yet will keep for 10-15 years.
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Wine Spectator
Expressive and multilayered, with lively rose petal and black cherry aromas and sleekly complex flavors that take on richness toward polished tannins. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Drink now through 2029.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
About half Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2016 The Dissident also contains 24% Merlot, 17% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot. The wine has a dark-fruited core of blackberry, blackcurrant and black cherry with dusty plums. The palate is focused for this workhorse for the brand, with a complex balance of fruit, tannin and life-giving acidity. The Dissident has an open-knit and sincere expression with an excellent, clean finish, ending slightly tart. 3,900 cases of this keenly priced wine were produced.
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.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
A large and geographically diverse AVA capable of producing a wide variety of wine styles, the Columbia Valley AVA is home to 99% of Washington state’s total vineyard area. A small section of the AVA even extends into northern Oregon!
Because of its size, it is necessarily divided into several distinctive sub-AVAs, including Walla Walla Valley and Yakima Valley—which are both further split into smaller, noteworthy appellations. A region this size will of course have varied microclimates, but on the whole it experiences extreme winters and long, hot, dry summers. Frost is a common risk during winter and spring. The towering Cascade mountain range creates a rain shadow, keeping the valley relatively rain-free throughout the entire year, necessitating irrigation from the Columbia River. The lack of humidity combined with sandy soils allows for vines to be grown on their own rootstock, as phylloxera is not a serious concern.
Red wines make up the majority of production in the Columbia Valley. Cabernet Sauvignon is the dominant variety here, where it produces wines with a pleasant balance of dark fruit and herbs. Wines made from Merlot are typically supple, with sweet red fruit and sometimes a hint of chocolate or mint. Syrah tends to be savory and Old-World-leaning, with a wide range of possible fruit flavors and plenty of spice. The most planted white varieties are Chardonnay and Riesling. These range in style from citrus and green apple dominant in cooler sites, to riper, fleshier wines with stone fruit flavors coming from the warmer vineyards.