Spain’s Blue “Wine” to Have Name Changed Following Fall Out with Wine Lobby

Spain’s Blue “Wine” to Have Name Changed Following Fall Out with Wine Lobby

Blue wine is having a name change

The idea that wine is wine, whether it’s red, white, or pink, has been proven wrong. Or at least kind of wrong. Five young Spanish entrepreneurs launched Gik last year. Gik is a blue wine made from Spanish grapes infused with anthyocyacin. This natural pigment of grape skin combines with natural dye from the woad plant to form an electric blue colour.

Traditionalists originally dismissed Gik as a marketing gimmick, but it was still able to sell over 100,000 bottles across 25 countries; proving to be a hit with hipsters and dilettantes.

Cue the Spanish wine lobby who insist on being spoilsports. They want to curb the success of Gik by declaring that Gik isn’t wine, and should not marketed or sold as wine.

The official regulations hold no category for blue wine in the 17 listed wine products for Spain. This list can be found in the Annex VII part II of Regulation 1308/2013. As such, there’s no way for officials to categorise Gik as a wine. They insist that it be marketed as something else. They even coined the category “99% wine and 1% grape must”.

The producers of Gik are not happy about the decision of course. They spoke to the Local and said that drinking Gik is about more than drinking blue wine. It’s about drinking innovation and creating your own rules and traditions.

They did at least concede that every revolution comes with a counter-revolution; which is a great way to sum up how everything has gone for Gik since it first drew the attention of wine inspectors last summer.

If time has taught us anything, however, it’s that Gik is likely to benefit from the controversy and the publicity. It will take Gik from being a gimmick wine to being the driving force behind a brand-new category of drinks. It’s now more likely that the “not-quite-wine” market explodes with similar drinks as demand grows and celebrated at festivals and events in Spain.

Number of Retired British Expats Claiming Winter Fuel Allowance Down Two Thirds Following Crackdown

Number of Retired British Expats Claiming Winter Fuel Allowance Down Two Thirds Following Crackdown  

The British government recently cracked down on winter fuel payments and have managed to save £16 million so far.

New data released from the UK government shows that just over 42,000 British expats  buying property and retiring overseas in the EU received winter fuel payments – down by over two-thirds compared to last year.

Around 137,845 British pensioners living in the EU received winter fuel allowance payments during the fiscal year of 2014/2015. This number was cut down drastically following a crackdown by the British government.

Elder Brits who were living abroad in sunnier locations were still receiving their annual winter fuel payments of over £200 (or £300 for those who are aged over 80) even though they were living in places where there was no need for it.

This caused the former Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith to bow that he would bring this wasteful practice in check by introducing a temperature test that would analyse the average temperatures of Europe.

If pensioners were living in an area of Europe were the average temperature was higher than the warmest area of the UK (the southwest of England) then they would have their winter fuel payments stopped. After this scheme was introduced the government has saved around £16 million as the amount of money spent on payments was reduced from £24.5 million to £8.1 million.

A general rule of thumb says that payments were stopped for people who moved to places such as Spain, France, Greece, Portugal, Malta, Cyprus and Gibraltar.

An interesting note is that pensioners living in Italy can still claim Winter Fuel Allowance. This is because the temperature test only takes into account average temperatures and the 40 degree highs of the Italian summer are offset by the bitter winters.