2016 Mark Ryan - The Dissident
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Tasting notes
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.
Critic scores
Average Score
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
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.
(aged in 58% new oak but owner/winemaker McNeilly noted that the rest of the barrels are also young and have an impact on the wine): Bright ruby-red. Aromatically expressive scents of black and blue fruits and rose petal. At once penetrating and pliant, showing classic Red Mountain blueberry character along with a note of bitter chocolate and an element of savory complexity. A bit more serious than the last vintage of this wine, despite the fact that the yields in this vineyard were difficult to manage in 2016 (some of the fruit was declassified to Mark Ryan's second label). McNeilly noted that he introduced some five-ton fermenters for this bottling in his new facility and got more texture and length as a result. Finishes with suave tannins. (14.7% alcohol)