Vine of the Dead
Cellador Ales

never had anything from these guys until we cracked a few on grape beer night last weekend. super sexy packaging, clever beers, all wild, my kind of thing! this one is super good looking in clear glass, artsy label, a rustic wild ale with cabernet and charbono skins, and bottle conditioned with honey, right in my wheelhouse! the color is gorgeous, ruby red and jewel toned, crazy clear for what it is, this really glimmers. it immediately smells like straight grape juice to me, this must be almost as much of the fermentables in here as any malt, which has little impact overall to me, grape candy, heavy red wine too, highly saturated with fruit, slightly floral character too from the orange blossom honey, a bit of old oak but the freshness of the fruit seems to trump the maturity of the ferment and the beer overall, some bretty funk opening as it comes up to temperature, tannic but not sour to me, still fully mouthwatering, light raspberry and cherry in with the grape intensity, wow. somehow no oxidation or weirdness from the clear glass, i usually expect beers packaged like this to have a ton of light struck character, but not here. the flavor is heavily grape forward too, fruit even before wine to me, although this is certainly vinous too, some oak for sure, an almost aromatic cedar note too, red roses, huckleberries, and some moderate acidity. this seems to have a lot of body, and definitely has some residual sugar, although the malt is minimal. great mineral profile, mature funk, and wild wine weirdness. impressive beer, really impressive, looks like i need to get my hands on more stuff from these guys, great first impression here. wonderful expression of the fruit, very well refined, im sure this one will age real well too, wish i had a second bottle!