The Southern French town of Sete has introduced a new type of wine that is putting some wine enthusiasts into a tizzy. The Spanish-made chardonnay is blue in colour and is so popular that a resort in the town quickly ran out of its 2,000-bottle consignment.
The turquoise colour occurs during the filtration process. The wine is filtered through red grape skins in the naturally occurring pigment anthocyanin, reported Reuters.
Entrepreneur Rene Le Bail is responsible for marketing the unusual-coloured drink, dubbed Vindigo. He found a vineyard in Spain’s southern Almeria region that makes the wine, which features cherry, raspberry, and passion fruit aromas. He has ordered thousands of bottles to meet demand.
“I think 600,000 bottles will go in two months. Everybody wants it,” Le Bail told Reuters.
The wine is also drawing attention in other markets. Le Bail has received orders through the wine’s Facebook page from countries such as Belgium, Germany, Russia, the Caribbean and China.
“We’ve said no to all the big supermarkets. We want in France to sell the wine through small-scale wine merchants and grocers,” he explained.
He added, “We knew that it would generate some buzz but not that much, it was crazy, everyone contacted us the following day to see Vindigo saying they wanted to taste Vindigo”.
Others have tried to sell blue wine in France yet failed. In 2016, Spanish startup Gik attempted to market its “vin bleu” product, but France rejected it over strict labelling rules. Le Bail’s use of the name Vindigo allowed him to skirt the regulations.
If you want to try the wine but have no plans on visiting southern France anytime soon, Naked Grape based in Ontario started selling a blue wine called Blusé earlier this summer. It retails at about $10 a bottle and is available in liquor stores around the country. It has mostly positive reviews on BC Liquor Store’s website with a 3.9 out of 5-star rating.
Winerack.com store manager Norm Eady reviewed the wine, writing: “I found it light, crisp and surprisingly not as sweet as I expected. The flavour I can be described as ‘if a Raspberry and a Mango had a Baby it would be Naked Grape Blue’. I was instantly a fan.” He added, “Naked Grape Blue pairs great with fun in the sun, girls nights out or as a stand-alone refreshing drink. It has the ability to captivate customers and inspire great conversations. Let’s raise a glass to Naked Grape Blue for reinventing Wine.”
