Blue Wine in India?

So the latest wine trend to do the rounds on social media is blue wine. Other than that it clearly belongs to a party sequence of a Star Trek production, what else is there to know about it?

The brand everyone’s hahaing about is Gik, and according to them the wine starts as a base of red and white grapes from different regions of Spain. Then two natural pigments – anthocyanin (from the skin of red grapes) and indigotine (plant-based dye) are added along with non-caloric artificial sweeteners. And voila! Sugary blue grape juice with 11.5% alcohol.

Sure most wine lovers think it’s ridiculous. The good news that the product isn’t for them. Gik says it’s all about innovation and of course, millennials. Why blue? Because apparently it represents ‘movement, innovation and infinity’. All the things we’ve been missing in our wine glass.

While Gik is slated to reach the US only in October, India may get a taste of some blue wine a lot earlier. Turns out Gik isn’t the only producer to make blue wine. An Indian company has approached Spanish wineries to create a new blue brand which if all goes as planned will be in India sometime in August. The brand will be called Ke Vida (what a life!) with two bottled variants – Dry and Fruity. Both will be Chardonnay based and made in much the same way as Gik, although the Fruity version will contain added natural sugars for a sweeter profile. Mumbai, Delhi, Gurgaon and Bangalore folk watch those shelves for some electric blue ferment. Priced at Rs2,700 in Delhi and Rs3,500 in Mumbai, it’ll be interesting to see how this one plays out.

It seems like this is going to be one of those ‘Love it or Hate it’ kind of things. I’m currently on the ‘Try it’ bandwagon and am especially looking forward to Ke Vida Dry. Now to just talk myself into drinking something the colour of mouthwash out of a wine glass. Stay tuned for updates.