The Vine: Rosé
Cascade Brewing / Raccoon Lodge & Brewpub

cascade is closed now, but we can add beers to closed breweries again, which rules, porting this over from an edit to my normal vine review, wasnt sure where else to comment on this one until now, but they did a version of the vine called the vine rose, and it deserves some mention. this is pretty awesome, pinot noir and chardonnay grapes in this version, plus some piquette apparently, aged on wine sediment and lees, pretty heady! i had this on tap, but they did bottle it too. pretty pink color, frosted looking almost hibiscus toned, lively and holding a ring of soft white head you dont always see on sour beer. the nose on this is tart fruit, tannic and skinny, more pinot to me than chardonnay, somewhat perfumed though, pear and red currant together, and quite tart, not super funky, cleaner than many they do, not bracing or anything, interesting, very winey. the flavor is quite pinot noir forward to me, real light on the grain in this, lots of minerality, even a briny element. dry, puckery, a hint of cranberry and raspberry, lime, and wet oak but the wood doesnt make it heavy, nor does the abv. its got a floral back end as it warms, is wild to me with a very subtly complex ferment, really cool beer, warms up well, and i think shows a lot of the wine yeast character just past the sourness, trace sulfur there. effervescent carbonation is a nice texture for it, drinks like sparkling natural wine, a neat version of this that i am sure will age incredibly well. i miss these guys already and their beer is still around...