Spanish Authorities Have Banned Blue Wine and Its Inventors Aren’t Happy

Remember that time a start-up from Spain set out to revolutionise the wine industry by producing bottles of blue plonk? Gïk Live made their unusually coloured drink by mixing red grape skin pigment with a plant-based food dye, and promised it would rebel against the stuffy elitism of the wine world.

But as with any revolution, one side eventually has to be on the losing team. And after less than a year on the shelves, Gïk's anarchic "disruption" of the Spanish wine scene could be coming to an end.

According to the start-up, lobbyists within the Spanish wine industry have banned the blue wine, arguing that it does not fit into any of the 17 wine product categories set out by European legislation. After a visit from Government inspectors in Spain's Agriculture, Fishing, and Food Department last year, it has been decided that Gïk's product cannot be legally considered a wine.

Well, one of the start-up founders did tell MUNCHIES last year that after a blind-tasting of the sweet drink, "just one of 15 people said it was a wine. Among the reactions we found some people even saying it was a soft drink." Awkward.

Gïk will continue to be sold but will now have to re-categorise the blue-hued drink as "Other alcoholic beverages." A spokesperson issued a statement to MUNCHIES saying that the start-up would be fighting the ban to call the drink "wine" with a hashtag and an online petition. Well, they are Millennial revolutionaries.

They said: "We understand that there are people who defend tradition and the respectable names of their favourite wines, but we think we are not doing something bad. We are just trying to make a product we love. We strongly believe there must be a place for everyone."

The 21 century anarchists march on.