Spain shows a red card to blue wine
Basque startup G?k told that its eye-catching beverage cannot be marketed as ˇ°vinoˇ±
Wine is either white, ros¨¦ or red, but never blue. A business venture by five Basque entrepreneurs has run afoul of SpainˇŻs winemaking industry. A complaint filed by the sectorˇŻs biggest producers has resulted in a prohibition against commercializing its blue-colored drink Gik Live as a wine. The people behind the eye-catching product say that the complaint has put sales on hold for three months while forcing them to fire two workers.
G?k, a startup based in the Basque town of Portugalete that aimed to ˇ°revolutionize a traditional industry with the worldˇŻs first blue wine,ˇ± has been forced to rethink its business strategy in the wake of the industry protest.
Company officials said that from now on, they will no longer be able to market their product as a blue wine, even though it is made exclusively with wine grapes (a mixture of red and white varieties) and uses organic pigments to create the blue hue.
ItˇŻs unfair, because G?k is 100% grape. It represents something new that the sector does not want to live with
Aritz L¨®pez, co-founder
Instead, the new label will not show the word wine at all, and the product will be classified under ˇ°other alcoholic beverages.ˇ±
ˇ°WeˇŻve had to change the makeup to 99% wine and 1% grape juice in order to make it adapt to existing legislation,ˇ± said a G?k spokesman.
ˇ°ItˇŻs unfair, because G?k is 100% grape. It represents something new that the sector does not want to live with,ˇ± says Aritz L¨®pez, one of its five creators.
The product received wide media coverage when it first came out in November, with UK broadcaster the BBC describing it as a ˇ°cross between a wine, a wine cooler and a cocktail mixer, with a mellow, sweet, slightly syrupy mouthfeel.ˇ±
Rainbow wine
There is another similar case in Spain. Vi?edos Amaya, a winemaker from El Bierzo with its own vineyards, was told by a court that its colored "technowine" cannot be marketed as wine, regional daily El Diario de Le¨®n reported. Instead, the company now markets a Rainbow Drink "made with wine and in any color you wish."
But all the attention also had its side effects. Two inspectors showed up at the companyˇŻs facilities in early August to analyze the characteristics of G?k Live, which was then being marketed as a blue wine. The company said it has sold over 90,000 bottles in the domestic market.
G?k Blue has an alcohol content of 11,5 degrees, and contains sweeteners. It pairs well ˇ°with sushi, guacamole and nachos, tzatziki, pasta carbonara and smoked salmon,ˇ± say its makers.
They also stress that the drink is regulated by the European Food Safety Authority and has all the necessary approvals.
But none of this was enough for SpainˇŻs wine producers, who filed a complaint stating that ˇ°the term ˇ®blue wineˇŻ is not included in the 17 categories of wine productsˇ± listed in 2013 industry regulations.
The company has also been slapped with a fine that it declines to disclose.
L¨®pez said that ˇ°some people defend tradition and the good name of their favorite wines, but we donˇŻt feel that we are hurting anybody. WeˇŻre just trying to bring this world closer to young people like ourselves. There should be room for everyone.ˇ±
G?k?officials also say that the Spanish Conference of Wine Regulatory Councils establishes that ˇ°diversity is one of the pillars of SpainˇŻs wines.ˇ±
Now, the company has launched a petition on Change.org in a bid to have their product categorized as wine and to have ˇ°a fair spot in the industry.ˇ±
English version by Susana Urra.
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