Named after the road that connected Fort Benson with Fort Walls Walla, Dennis Cakebread of Cakebread Cellars launched this winery because he was particularly intrigued by the quality of wines from Washington state. Dennis started one of Napa’s iconic wineries, Cakebread Cellars, back in 1973. He has gained a worldwide reputation for high quality Chardonnay and has been active in wine industry groups including stints as president of the Napa Valley Vintners and has served on the boards of The Wine Institute, Family Winemakers of California, and WineAmerica. The Mullan Road Red Wine wine sources from some of the choicest state vineyards including the Stillwater Creek Vineyard and the Seven Hills Vineyard. Superstar winemaker, Aryn Morell, serves as head winemaker on this project. Aryn has previously worked at Silver Oak and has been winemaker consultant to Joseph Phelps, Quintessa, Chimney Rock, Chappellet, and Matthews.
While I was really impressed with the 2013 Mullan Road Red Wine, the 2014 Red Wine is just as dense and expressive, with a wonderful range of dark fruits. The lineup of Mullan Road wines were gorgeous, and show wonderful poise from these great vintages in Washington. Learn more about Mullan Road at http://mullanroadcellars.com Here are the great wines of Mullan Road.
2012 Mullan Road Cabernet Franc- Sourced from the Seven Hills Vineyard, this wine weighs in at 14.1% alcohol. This gorgeous wine, made by the talented hands of Aryn Morell, brings some highly perfumed aromatics of rose petals, red bell pepper, smoke, sagebrush, milk chocolate covered cherry and black raspberry. The mid-palate has a silky texture and wonderful smoothness. There are dense flavors of cassis, anise, sage, and black olive. This shows wonderful structure and dark fruits, as this will cellar beautifully for more than a decade. Drink 2017-2028- 93
2012 Mullan Road Red Wine- This wine is a blend of 51% Cabernet Sauvignon with 37% Merlot and 12% Cabernet Franc, this wine opens with a bouquet of Turkish coffee, crushed mint, dark chocolate shavings, black cherry and black olive. There is a lush mouthfeel, as the wine glides across the palate, yielding deep flavors of black plum, roasted dates, black cherry cough syrup, Chinese black tea and a graphite edge. This is pretty irresistible right now, but the wine will cellar beautifully for at least another decade. Drink 2017-2027- 92
2013 Mullan Road Red Wine-A blend of 57% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot and the remainder Cabernet Franc and Malbec, this wine has a slightly stronger Cabernet influence on the nose than the 2012 bottling. The wine opens with aromatics of black olive, red bell pepper, coffee grounds and suggestions of black cherry compote. With minerality ever present on the palate, this silky Bordeaux style wine yields flavors of black olive tapenade, boysenberry liquor, Earl Grey tea and mint. This shows wonderful poise and elegance. Drink 2017-2028- 92
2013 Mullan Road Merlot-This plush and silky Merlot wine opens with aromatics of black cherry, dark chocolate, wet stone and sagebrush. This leads to rich flavors of black cherry, black olive, mint, gravel and allspice. The silky texture and dense mouthfeel is irresistible. Drink 2017-2027- 92
2014 Mullan Road Red Wine- The 2014 Mullan Road Cellars Red Wine is a beautifully structured and open new release from this estate. Sourced from the Seven Hills Vineyard, the Lawrence Vineyard and the Stillwater Creek Vineyard, the wine shows a nice combination of poise and dark fruit flavors from this hot vintage. Currently displaying aromatics of red bell pepper, red cherry, black raspberry and cola, the wine has nice mid-palate viscosity and coats the glass. There are ripe flavors reminiscent of red cherry, blackberry and sagebrush. This forward style red wine is drinking beautifully right now but will also cellar well into the next decade. Drink 2017-2027- 91