gik blue wine
Credit: Gïk
(Image credit: Gïk)

A company that launched 'blue wine' in Spain has started a petition after European Union officials said that its drink wasn't technically a wine.

EU and Spanish wine officials banned Gïk from using the word ‘wine’ on labels for its recently launched ‘blue wine’.

The company’s original marketing suggests that it was aware of a potential backlash, describing its brightly coloured liquid as ‘revolutionising the world of wine with a blasphemous drink’.

Gïk Blue includes red and white wine grapes from Spain’s Castilla La Mancha and Rioja regions, and the company infuses these with a plant-based dye plus sweeteners.

The company launched an online petition in the UK via Change.org in order to create a new product category for blue wine.

However, only 39 people had signed by midday on Monday 23 January.

‘In order to continue selling, we have been forced to stop labelling Gïk as a wine. Instead, we had to label it as a category named “Other alcoholic drinks”,’ the petition says.

Credit: Gïk

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Chris Mercer
Chris Mercer

Chris Mercer is a Bristol-based freelance editor and journalist who spent nearly four years as digital editor of Decanter.com, having previously been Decanter’s news editor across online and print.

He has written about, and reported on, the wine and food sectors for more than 10 years for both consumer and trade media.

Chris first became interested in the wine world while living in Languedoc-Roussillon after completing a journalism Masters in the UK. These days, his love of wine commonly tests his budgeting skills.

Beyond wine, Chris also has an MSc in food policy and has a particular interest in sustainability issues. He has also been a food judge at the UK’s Great Taste Awards.