Those who may have an aversion to alcohol the same color as toilet cleaning products may have a problem with the new wine that is being released this summer by Gik — a Basque-based startup that is a screaming, startling shade of electric blue. Wine traditionalists may take issue with the marketing: the website declares “We are not vintners. We are creators. So we sought the most traditional and closed-minded industry out there.”
Gik’s creators are far from the first to declare rebellion against the confines of the wine industry, and not even the first to conceptualize a blue wine (Italian Futurists, a prosecco from Fratelli and writer Guy Gavriel Kay’s famed third glass of the night as a sign of remembrance in his novel Tigana all call out to shades of blue.) But, perhaps emboldened by a new consumer surge towards rosé, they are pushing the boundaries when it comes to appearances — both of the wine itself and the person holding the glass. Gik, drawing from wineries in La Rioja, Zaragoza, and Courthèzon, claims no denomination of origin, but rather boasts about how it doesn’t add sugar — not for traditional reasons in winemaking, but because “non-caloric sweeteners are a healthier and more stable choice.”
Dubious health claims and marketing aside, the blue wine shows a demand from consumers to consider new ideas in wine. The group most often praised or maligned for changing tradition — the millennials — is also taking the hit for wine “innovations” such as wine in a can. “22-to-34-year-olds aren’t just wine consumers—they’re wine influencers. That’s the great thing about wine: It leaves one hand free for texting,” writes Erin Blakemore at Smithsonian magazine. And this audience is a prolific wine drinking market: a study by The Wine Market Council earlier this year said that millennials are not only “highly involved drinkers”, but that they outdrink their adult counterparts by 40%. But does the world really need a mancan (marketed directly to men, with three options of red, wine and fizz) or black light labels on hipster wine (lest you think I am being facetious, the wine itself is called The Hipster Edition Chablis from William Fevre)?
Perhaps the backlash on blue wine is a trifle color blind. After all, it took five years for Decanter to declare that it was time to get in touch with orange wine (due to color that occurs when the grape remains in contact with the skins for a mandated 24 hour period). And we all remember that study from a few years back where Ph.D. student Frédéric Brochet cheekily dyed white wine with red food coloring, fooling oeneologists in training with their own preconceived notions of taste. As our eyes adjust to our taste buds, who knows what color may be in our glass in the future?
