Blue Wine

We haven't been to Spain for a while, so let's take a trip today. Spain is the home of some of the best wines in the world. Ribera del Duero, Rioja, Jumilla, Rias Baixas, just to name a few of the places where you can get incredible wine in Spain. While most of the reds are based in Tempranillo or Garnacha and many of the white wines are Albarino, Spain produces wines from lots of grapes.

And, Spain is the third largest wine producing country in the world. It also has more acres planted to vineyards than any other country in the world.

And, it has a funny mistake, or at least I would tell you it is. A bunch of young Spaniards in the wine industry got together to create a blue wine. Yes, the wine comes in a clear bottle and it is electric blue in color. I am not going to advertise what it is here, beacuase among other things, I don't want to be accused of encouraging you to own it or drink it, but if you google Blue Wine, I expect you will find it.

Here's what you need to know about it. The winemakers choose a combination of red and white grapes that they can get on the cheap from various parts of Spain and even France. They then use combinations of the grape skins and what they refer to as food technology (I expect we would call it food coloring in another context) to create an electric blue color. And, they are convinced that people who will be attracted to this wine will like a sweet wine. But, adding sugar, just by pouring it in for kicks, or through a process known as chaptilization (used heavily in the production of sparkling wines) would produce a much less healthy wine. The winemakers would tell you that the extra calories do not appeal to the demographic they are trying to attract. So, they use non-caloric artificail sweeteners. Yum or not!

While the wine varies from year to year, there are some consistencies that never change. On the nose, this wine smells like an overripe watermelon. Nauseatingly sweet on the palate, it's best not consumed alone, but many of its followers do ... somehow. If you must try it, I would consider adding tons of fruit, perhaps a carbonated beverage and putting it into a pitcher as sangria or a large bowl as punch. Pair it with black lights, lava lamps, and techno music or even with some of the acid rock from the 60s.