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Blue wine: what it is, where the colour comes from, and how it tastes
Blue wine is wine with colour added, and sometimes sweetened. Where it came from, why the EU won't call it wine, what a lab found in two bottles, and how it compares with red and white.
Updated October 2026
Rewritten by Alper Billik, Advanced Sommelier
4 min read
The short answer: blue wine is ordinary wine, such as a blend of red and white or a white, that has been coloured blue, and sometimes sweetened. Grapes cannot make a blue wine on their own. In the European Union it cannot even be sold under the name “wine”. It is a fun novelty drink, not a new style of wine.
Can grapes make blue wine?
No. The colour of red wine comes from anthocyanins, pigments in the grape skins. At the natural acidity of wine they show red to purple, never a clear blue. Nature only turns this family of pigments blue with extra help, such as the metals and co-pigments inside a blue flower. So every blue wine has its colour added after the wine is made.
Where blue wine came from: Gïk
Blue wine as we know it started with Gïk, launched in Spain in 2016 by a group of young entrepreneurs who wanted to shake up wine. It was a blend of red and white wines. The company said its colour came from anthocyanin and indigo, and it was sweetened with a non-caloric sweetener. One of its founders described it to the press as “not complex at all”.
Then came a complaint. EU law lists the categories of wine products (Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013, Annex VII, Part II), and blue wine is not one of them. After an inspection, Gïk had to stop calling itself wine in Spain: it was relabelled as an “other alcoholic drink”, 99% wine and 1% grape must.
What a lab found in the bottle
In 2019 chemists at the University of Toulouse tested two blue wines sold in France as naturally coloured: Vindigo, made in Spain, and Imajyne, from Corsica. They found Brilliant Blue FCF, the synthetic food dye known as E133 and used in blue curaçao, which the producers had not declared, and no trace of spirulina, a natural blue colouring. The study was published in European Food Research and Technology. French authorities also launched a prosecution against Imajyne's makers, who denied using E133.
The lesson for anyone buying: if a drink is a colour that no grape can give, ask what made it that colour.
Blue wine vs red and white wine
| Blue wine | Red wine | White wine | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where the colour comes from | Added after the wine is made | Pigments in the grape skins, drawn out during fermentation | Juice pressed off the skins, so little colour |
| Sweetness | Gïk was sweetened, with a non-caloric sweetener | Most are dry | From bone dry to lusciously sweet |
| Character | Simple by design | From light and simple to deep and complex | From light and simple to deep and complex |
| Sense of place | None claimed: it is about the colour | Grape, region and vintage | Grape, region and vintage |
| Name in the EU | Cannot be sold as “wine” | Wine | Wine |
- Where the colour comes from
- Blue wineAdded after the wine is made
- Red winePigments in the grape skins, drawn out during fermentation
- White wineJuice pressed off the skins, so little colour
- Sweetness
- Blue wineGïk was sweetened, with a non-caloric sweetener
- Red wineMost are dry
- White wineFrom bone dry to lusciously sweet
- Character
- Blue wineSimple by design
- Red wineFrom light and simple to deep and complex
- White wineFrom light and simple to deep and complex
- Sense of place
- Blue wineNone claimed: it is about the colour
- Red wineGrape, region and vintage
- White wineGrape, region and vintage
- Name in the EU
- Blue wineCannot be sold as “wine”
- Red wineWine
- White wineWine
What does blue wine taste like?
It depends on the brand, and few say much. One of Gïk's founders summed it up as sweet and fresh, and simple on purpose: a drink to serve well chilled and enjoy, more like a cocktail than a wine to think about. In a clear glass, the colour is the whole show.
Should you try it?
For a party, why not: it gets people talking, and that is half of what wine is for. But what makes wine special is that it tastes of a grape, a place and a year, and blue wine is built to taste of none of them. If it is colour and fun you want from a real wine, try a pink one, a sparkling rosé, or an orange wine, a white made with its skins like a red. Every shade comes from the grapes.
New to wine? Wine Easy explains it in plain words, and SOMM DIGI AI will answer any wine question, any time. More on finding your own taste: wine connoisseur vs sommelier.
Questions people ask
Is blue wine real wine?
It is made from wine, but in the EU it cannot be sold as wine: blue is not one of the legal categories, so Gïk had to relabel as an “other alcoholic drink”.
What makes blue wine blue?
Colour added after the wine is made. Gïk said it used anthocyanin and indigo; a 2019 study of two other brands found the synthetic dye E133.
What does blue wine taste like?
Gïk, the first of them, was sweet, fresh and simple on purpose: one of its founders called it “not complex at all”.
Is blue wine natural?
Grapes cannot make wine blue on their own, so its colour is always added. Some brands claimed natural colourings; lab tests on two of them found a synthetic dye.
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