So I get a lot of people asking me, what do I think of blue wine? The TL;DR version: It’s not wine. It should be banished to the “cocktails” section.
The marketing-speak description for blue wine is that it’s dyed with anthocyanin (natural color compound found in grape skins) and indigotine, purportedly extracted from plants. Indigotine is the same stuff used to color blue candy. Not too surprising: when I took one sip of a blue wine, it immediately colored my tongue blue, very much like blue candy does. Anthocyanin is indeed a color compound found in grape skins, and simply put, it is the reason why red wine is red. However, this compound actually exists in 3 colors – red, transparent, and blue – depending on the pH of the liquid it is in. The blue state only exists as the pH of the solution increases, and you guessed it, the pH of wine – any wine – is too low for anthocyanin to be in its blue state. Continue reading “Blue wine … my two cents”