Feeling blue? Then this wine may be perfect
Print Edition
A glass of blue, sir? It is a question that may dismay purist winemakers in France, where wine is a way of life rather than simply a drink. But in the southern town of Sete, consumers cannot get enough.
In the Mediterranean resort鈥檚 restaurants and beach bars, holidaymakers and local residents have drunk their way through the first 2,000-bottle consignment of the turquoise-colored chardonnay.
Now Rene Le Bail, the entrepreneur marketing the Spanish-made wine, has put in an order for up to 35,000 more bottles.
鈥淚t reminds me of something. I鈥檓 not sure which fruit but it makes me think of, I don鈥檛 know, maybe sweets from my childhood,鈥 said a diner who identified himself as Frederic.
鈥淚 love the color. It鈥檚 perfect for the summer. It brings happiness, joy and I really like it,鈥 said Nora, a tourist from Singapore while drinking in a beachfront restaurant.
The wine is filtered through a pulp of red grape skins which contain a natural pigment, anthocyanin, which gives the wine its electric blue color.
Le Bail turned to a vineyard in Spain鈥檚 southern Almeria region to find a blue wine with aromas of cherry, raspberry and passion fruit.
It is not the first blue wine to come out of Spain. In 2016, Spanish startup Gik developed a wine with a deep sapphire hue. But because of its 鈥渧in bleu鈥 label, it ran afoul of strict French labeling rules and suffered a short shelf-life in stores.
The entrepreneur has sidestepped the regulations with some clever naming, labeling the 12 euro (US$13.70) bottles: 鈥淰indigo.鈥
鈥淚 think the bottles we鈥檝e ordered will go in two months. Everybody wants it,鈥 Le Bail said. Le Bail says he has been inundated with orders from across France, Belgium and Germany and says demand for the wine stretches as far as Russia, the Caribbean and China.
鈥淲e鈥檝e said no to all the big supermarkets. We want in France to sell the wine through small-scale wine merchants and grocers,鈥 he said. In a country where rose was long seen as a poor cousin to red and white before becoming fashionable in recent years, not everyone shares Le Bail鈥檚 conviction that blue wine is here to last. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a bit heavy in its aromas,鈥 said Philippe Delran, a wine merchant in Sete who raised his eyebrows in thinly-concealed displeasure. 鈥淚t needs more work.鈥
(Reuters)
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