De-Vine
Ex Novo Brewing

another winner from our grape beer night, i realize i have not had nearly enough beers from these guys, they seem to be good at a lot of things. this is exceptional, merlot grapes in the mix, and identifiable as such, richly flavorful wild beer underneath all the fruit, a great beer wine hybrid, highly vinous, mineral forward, and really funky without being too sour, a nice mixed type fermentation profile, loved this. pinkish purplish color, good clarity through most of the bottle, and a cool sweetness to the nose and taste through the funkiness and tang. some tannins from the grapes are here, and there are other fruit nuances too, prune and blackberry to me, and its even almost sort of sulfuric like wines can be. this has all the jammy decadence of a merlot proper. the texture is fuller feeling, i like the alcohol coming out too, it keeps it in the wine range for me, its almost necessary to deliver the grapes this way. the brett element is cool, no vinegar to the sourness, an almost lambic aspect to it too. really complex and good, warms up nicely, and was in the top couple of grape beers we got into. definitely going to make a better effort to drink more of their beers, i have been impressed so far!