When it comes to wine, I’m a bit of a traditionalist. I like mine to be red, purple, golden or salmon in hue. That pretty much covers most good red wines, white wines, sparkling wines and rosé wines.
So what’s the deal with these other colors that are finding their way onto supermarket shelves?
Let’s start with orange wine, which is not made from oranges, but rather from white grapes that are crushed, moved into a large vessel, and then left to ferment with very little to no intervention. It’s a natural process that many have embraced, but the resulting wines are an acquired taste — typically quite sour.
Then there’s blue wine, which is a blend of red and white grapes from Spain and France, to which indigo dye and anthocyanin (a grape skin pigment) is added. It’s sweet, meant to be consumed well chilled, and is somewhat reminiscent of Moscato — although the color may fool your taste buds into thinking it tastes more like concord grape or grape Kool-Aid.
Orange wine and blue wine would not be made if they did not have a market, which brings up a logical question: What will be the next big thing in wine? Which color will be next?
Honestly, I have no idea. But as a parent and a grandparent who has watched trends come and go more than a few times in the wine business, my best guess is: something that the parents of the next generation of wine drinkers is not drinking.
Kids may respect their parents, but they almost always gravitate to different types of food and different types of beverages. There are people far smarter than I who are hard at work trying to figure out what kind of wine the next generation will want to drink.
I’m just hoping it isn’t green-colored.
