Hard to tell if its dead.. I thought mine was dead once and then had leaves sprouting up from the roots..

You don't mention where you're at. It is a possibility that it hasn't warmed enough yet for your container to bounce back and regrow depending on your location. It is also possible that you lost it due to freeze. Mint is very hardy, however containers can defy wintering. This year, I lost sage, chives, onion chives, sorrel, burnet, and a blueberry bush, all zoned to 4, which is colder than me. But, all in containers and I didn't straw mulch them as I usually would. My apple mint is only barely bouncing back thus far.

Sorry about that... I am in zone 4b, but I took it inside to my cool basement for the winter. It's been fairly warm here... I feel like it had come back earlier last year, but then again I may have brought it upstairs near a sunny window last year, and this year I put it right outside.

Looks dead to me. Did it get adequate light in the basement?

I also grow my mint in very large containers. It stays outside year round. There are only a few varieties that are a little les cold hardy that I bring inside. It all dies back to the ground in winter. In late winter, just before the new growth starts, I cut back all the stems (like what you show in your photo) completely to the ground to clean things up and ready it for the new growth. Here in Z7a I've already been cutting mint (8 to 10 inches tall) for drying and regular use for tea. You should get new sprouts from the roots (mint is hard to kill unless you just let it dry out too much), but what was above ground last year should just be cut off completely.

It didn't get light at all in the basement, but last year it did fine in those conditions and came back. I'm wondering if I didn't water it frequently enough.

Even with items I keep in my unheated porch, I do have to water occasionally throughout the winter. Not lots but just enough to keep the soil from completely drying out. My basement, from the furnace and hot water heater, is much warmer than my unheated porch and would have required more water to keep it going -- not to mention the lack of light.

FataMorgana

I'd bet it dried up. Mint needs moisture! Knock it out of the pot & see if you see any viable roots (they will be white or light-colored & soft but firm). Give it a good soak in a bucket to tease open the roots and get the old soil off, & re-pot it in a good container mix with some compost. If you have gardening friends with mint, I am sure they'd be more than happy to share! If all else fails, around here you can get a new 3-4" pot of mint for about $3.

Mint should be OK overwintering outdoors even in your zone. I bury my container plants in a deep pile of leaves in the back of the yard over the winter & most come through just fine.

Another thing I do is plant assorted mints in my herb beds in large (like 2-gallon), deep nursery pots that I have cut the bottom out of. Then you just have to remember to trim them often enough that the stems don't grow so high above the pot that they flop over & lie on the ground, where they will, of course, root. :-)

Good luck!

Update: I dug these up over the weekend and think they did dry out. The roots has plenty of space, but most were no longer alive. I salvaged what was living, replanted, and will leave them outside this year.