A few days ago, I posted about orange wines, which are produced using a natural, ancestral process, and have gained significantly in popularity. Yet, did you know that blue wine is now one of the new hot trends in the wine industry?
Blue wine is made by fermenting red grapes and white grapes together, and adding sweeteners and coloring agents. Producers of these wines claim that they are “natural” because the additives are produced from plant-derived materials. That said, please don’t mistake these wines as being “natural” in the same way that orange wines are natural.
Orange wines are natural because the vineyards are often farmed organically or biodynamically (with no chemical treatments), they use very little, if any, sulfur dioxide, and they use no additives or manipulations during winemaking. The orange color comes as a result of extended skin contact and oxygen exposure.
Blue wines, on the other hand, are created as a direct result of additives and manipulations, even if those additives are plant-derived. However, researchers have found that some producers of blue wines have attained the color not from plant-derived materials, but from a synthetic food coloring called Brilliant Blue that is also used in Blue Curacao and blue Jolly Ranchers.
Blue wines were created in 2016 by a Spanish company called Gik. All of the creators of blue wine were under 30 years old and looking to create a distinctive, innovative product that would shake up the wine industry. They were inspired by a marketing theory called the Blue Ocean Strategy, which provided tools for exploring and capturing “blue oceans”, their term for unexplored new market areas.
So what does blue wine taste like? These wines have added sweeteners, so they have a lightly sweet taste with berry, cherry and passionfruit flavors. However, some people say these wines have an artificial sugar aftertaste. Those who enjoy them appreciate that these wines generally have low alcohol levels (around 11%), making it easy and refreshing to enjoy several glasses.
So, do you think you’ll give blue wine a try? As for me, I won’t drink anything with a color that doesn’t exist in nature. I don’t even drink Blue Curacao-based cocktails for that reason. I’ll leave this one for the more adventurous younger drinkers.
