Startup Bucks Tradition With Neon-Blue Wine

Regulators are not pleased with Gik
By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 8, 2017 9:33 AM CST
Startup Bucks Tradition With Neon-Blue Wine
The Spanish startup Gik claims to be specifically about breaking rules.   (Gik/Instagram)

To respect the rules of the game or break them? Sometimes, that is the question. And a startup in Spain has just learned that at least in the world of wine, rule-breaking is rather frowned upon. Last year, Gïk challenged Spain's wine establishment by rolling out a neon-blue wine, reports the New York Times. The color comes from the addition of two natural ingredients, indigo dye and anthocyanin, which is found in grape skin, and the powers-that-be were none too pleased. Because blue is not among 17 types of wine products recognized, regulators fined the company and ordered it to remove the words "blue wine" from its labels, per the Local.

Gïk has already sold more than 120,000 bottles of blue wine, more than half to countries outside of the EU, like Brazil and Japan, and it's poised to break into the US market. One of its founders admits to the BBC: "To be honest, we're not wine people, we're entrepreneurs." While the Spanish Wine Federation's director says it's a "laudable corporate initiative," he adds, "You have to respect the rules of the game." Gïk, which suspended production for two months, is now shipping its drink with new labels that say it is "99 percent wine and 1 percent grape must." But even if it can't be shelved with wine, the Daily Meal notes it won't be hard to find. "That blue bottle is a pretty distinctive color." And at least Gïk doesn't have to change its tagline: "Gïk is not about wine. You are drinking ... rebellion." (Sometimes good wine is real cheap.)

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