Mach-Limit (Petit-Verdot & Cabernet Sauvignon)
Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales

 

500 mL corked and capped bottle. Pours a ruby purple, nearly still in appearance. Wine tannins on the nose, with a whiff of sharp acidity. Less tart on the palate, more balanced, with kiwi, papaya, wine grapes, and only very light carbonation. The grapes provide an unusual textural element, more like an older wine carelessly poured with some sedimentation stirred up. Very interesting experiment.

 

distinctively different from the other blend that was released at the same time. while its still surprisingly strong, as much wine as it is beer, and a little less developed on the wild side than the best black project beers, this one really has a cool winey vibe to it, less grape juice, more finished wine, which i think is really interesting, its rich and tannic and woody, its big cabernet. i am a little less familiar with the nuances of petit verdot than i am with cabernet sauvignon, and i really can appreciate the latter here. its deeply purple in the glass, muted in luster, with a pinkish head. it smells like currants and raspberries, plums and dried blueberries, tangy and with more fruits than just grapes it seems, more funkiness coming out as it warms but very little from the grain or the hops. i like these beer wine hybrids a lot, and this is a good one, the fruit is awesome in it, really prominent, and quite identifiable. i am sure these will age well, i wish i had more to find out, but for now, its as much fruit juice as it is wild beer, i think some time will do both of these a lot of favors. cool little series of beers here, but neither of these touch the tempranillo edition from years ago, which to me is still the best beer black project has ever made!

edit: three years in the bottle has done a lot for this, super mature now, woody and vinous as ever, almost totally still, which i dont recall from before. good acidity and tannins, more funk than i remember, and some neat almost port wine nuttiness, like a walnut layer before the finish. much different than i remember, much bolder in flavor, really good, better than expected even. this was a highlight from a pretty incredible grape beer share last night, unique specimen in an already unique category, real mature now. yum,

edit: hitting these again at four and a half years old now, bottles from april 2018, no december 2022, this one is so much more complex, more sour than the malbec merlot one, which is almost basically wine, this is electric pink and has nice lemony tang, obvious cherry and raspberry nuances in the fruit, and is still mostly uncarbonated. i expected a little more lambic type wild funk to develop, but it really hasnt. at least the fruit is in tact. delicious and unique, these have done quite well in the cellar.