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?