The cobalt blue wine that began its launch in Spain, is hitting U.S. shelves very soon. The photogenic wine stems away from the usual colors of wine to bring something “fun” and “different” to drinking the alcoholic beverage.
Given the name ‘Gik’ for this new summer beverage, the makers of the neon colored wine have actually been fined for their creation by the Spanish government for $3,000 as blue is not legally approved as a wine color under Spanish regulation. As a result, the label claimed that the drink was “99% wine and 1% grape must.”
Now sold under the “Other Alcoholic Beverages” in Spain, the blue colored drink will be sold as wine in the U.S. this October. It’s initial launch will begin in Miami, Boston and Texas, with hope to also launch in New York, New Jersey, Michigan, California, Washington and Nevada sometime after. The bottle will be retailed between $12 and $14.
The creation of this internet phenomenon, was to create something that is against the “close-minded industry out there” by making the wine “sweeter and easier to drink”.
At an 11.5% alcohol content, Gik Live – the Spanish company who make the wine – blend red and white wines from Spanish and French vineyards. Of course, the two colors together do not make blue, electric blue at that, so the color reportedly comes from organic pigments found in grape skin, called indigo, and a “non-caloric sweetener.”
The founders, made up of six twenty-somethings, claim they have already sold 80,000 bottles following their launch earlier this summer. Speaking to Vice’s Munchies, co-founder, Artiz Lopez, says: “For me, it is a wine that is not complex at all. It tastes sweet and fresh and has no heritage.
Surprisingly, when we did a blind tasting, just one of 15 people said it was a wine. Among the reactions we found some people even saying it was a soft drink!”
