Does blue wine really exist?

Blue wine burst onto the scene in 2015 when six young Basque entrepreneurs launched Gïk Blue — an electric-blue drink made from a blend of Spanish white and red wines, tinted with indigo dye (E132) and grape-skin anthocyanins. Priced under €10, it sold over 100,000 bottles in 25+ countries within months.

The EU wasn't impressed. Under regulation 1308/2013 governing wine categories, adding artificial colourants means a product can't legally be called 'wine.' Gïk had to rebrand as a 'wine-based drink' (99 % wine, 1 % additives) — a category with different tax and labelling rules.

Some producers have tried a more natural route. Grape varieties like Alicante Bouschet, Georgian Saperavi, and the rare German Dunkelfelder are packed with anthocyanins that can shift toward blue-violet hues at higher pH levels (above 3.8). The results are more deep purple than true blue, but they're closer to the real deal.

The blue wine market remains tiny — under 5 million bottles globally in 2024 — driven mainly by lifestyle brands targeting 21–30-year-olds on Instagram and TikTok. In Belgium, you might spot a bottle in a few adventurous shops, but demand is minuscule compared to natural or orange wine.

Bottom line: blue wine is more marketing than winemaking. It usually tastes like a lightly sweetened white, and serious sommeliers won't lose sleep over it. But it did force the industry to ask an interesting question — what exactly is 'wine' in the 21st century?