Move Over Rosé, Blue Wine Is Sweeping the French Riviera

A new drink trend is sweeping the Cote d'Azur.

And, appropriately enough, it also is azure in color: blue wine.

Hotels in the southern French town of Sete have been completely selling out of a new type of blue Chardonnay made in Spain and marketed by French entrepreneur Rene Le Bail. In the Mediterranean town's beachfront hotels and bars, tourists and locals alike have been downing the blue drink by the case — the first 2,000-bottle order has already been entirely imbibed.

Le Bail is now placing an order for 35,000 more bottles to quench tippling beachgoers on the French Riviera. He predicts 35,000 bottles of the wine, dubbed "Vindigo," will last about two months in the region because "everybody wants it,” Le Bail told Reuters, noting that he's had orders from across France, Belgium, Germany, Britain, Italy, Russia, China and Indonesia.

But Le Bail wants to keep Vindigo's vendors exclusive. “We’ve said no to all the big supermarkets," he said. "We want in France to sell the wine through small-scale wine merchants and grocers.”

At first glance, the electric blue potable might look like a stem glass full of windex or toilet cleaner. But, the bright turquoise color is actually a naturally occurring pigment, called anthocyanin, that's cultivated by filtering the white wine through red grape skins.

“I love the color, it’s perfect for the summer," a tourist from Singapore named Nora told Reuters while drinking the blue wine on the beach. "It brings happiness, joy, I really like it.”

Le Bail says the wine has notes of cherry, raspberry, blackberry and passion fruit. “Women appreciate it very much," Le Bail told the Telegraph, “It is an ideal wine for the summer, to drink on the sand or at the edge of the swimming pool.”

“It reminds me of something, I’m not sure which fruit but it makes me think of, I don’t know, maybe sweets from my childhood,” a blue wine drinker named Frederic told Reuters.

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Vindigo seems to be catching on with even discerning French wine drinkers — a big change from when Le Bail first started production. He originally wanted a vineyard in his home country of France to make the blue wine, but none would, so he moved the operation to Almeira, Spain.

It's not the first blue wine to debut in France. Back in 2016 a Spanish start-up blue wine named Gik was sold in French grocery stores. But the self-proclaimed "world's first blue wine" labeled itself as "vin bleu," which violated the European Union's labeling regulations, and so it was pulled from shelves nationwide.

But, we have a feeling Vindigo has a bright blue, Instagram-based future ahead of it.