2013 Mark Ryan Cabernet Sauvignon Lonely Heart
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Tasting notes
(a barrel selection; aged in 79% new oak): Bright ruby. Very sexy oak tones sweeten the aromas of cassis, blueberry, licorice and graphite minerality. Sweet blueberry and blackberry flavors are supported by a firm spine of acidity and a stony underpinning. Tight-grained and penetrating but not hard. Still, this subtly saline wine, from soil featuring fractured basalt and river rocks (including a good percentage of Ciel du Cheval vines planted in 1982), needs time. Finishes with smooth tannins and noteworthy perfumed length. At once oakier and a bit more polished than the Dead Horse Cabernet.
Critic scores
Average Score
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
Jeb Dunnuck, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
The flagship cuvee is the 2013 Lonely Heart Cabernet Sauvignon, which is an old vine Cabernet Sauvignon dominated blend that includes a tiny splash of Merlot and Petit Verdot. Aged 21 months in 79% new French oak, it’s a full-bodied, incredibly polished, elegant 2013 that has lots of red and black currants, graphite, toasted spice, and lead pencil aromas and flavors. There’s a satin-like texture to the tannin, it has solid mid-palate depth and a great finish, all suggesting it will be long lived. Give bottles 3-4 years and enjoy over the following two decades.