My dad rang me earlier this summer to ask if I’d heard about this new chilled red wine trend.  I reminded him, with my obligatory eye roll, that keeping up with drinks trends is quite literally my job. And that when I brought a ‘chilly red’ to a barbecue last summer, he regarded it with deep suspicion. One mention on Radio 5 Live later, and all his mates are converts.

Chillable red has rumbled around the trade for years. This was the summer it finally wandered out into the mainstream. Once red wine has permission to be cold and more casual, the obvious next question is what else can it get away with…

That’s where blouge comes in. Chilled red’s more eccentric cousin: a red and white mash-up with a better colour story, a better name, and a real buzz that makes wine people either excited or keen to pretend they knew about it months ago. Half the trade is talking about it. The other half is quietly Googling it under the table. No judgement; I was doing exactly that a few months ago.

So, what is Blouge?

Blanc plus rouge. Say it out loud and you’ve got the recipe. Red and white grapes, usually co-fermented together to make a wine. While some producers ferment the two separately and blend afterwards, what’s allowed depends entirely on where in the world you’re standing. Because there are rules, wine can never just be delicious and mind its own business. Across the EU, there are limits on blending finished red and white together, so co-fermentation is often the route. Outside Europe, there’s less legislation to argue with, and producers have more license to play.

There’s no single defined style, and that’s part of the appeal. Some drink like light reds, they can be crunchy, bright and even quite serious in some instances. Others sit nearer a dark rosé: soft, juicy and dangerously easy to drink. In the glass, blouge can look like anything from sunset orange to electric raspberry, which is doing it absolutely no harm on social media.

The serve is non-negotiable: cold or lightly chilled. In my experience it’s happiest next to a cheeseboard, pizza, anything with a bit of spice, and more or less everything that comes off a barbecue.

An old idea with a new name

The funny thing is, very little about blouge is new. Co-fermenting red and white grapes has been going on for centuries. Old field blend vineyards, with red and white vines tangled up together, picked on the same day and tipped into the same tank. Portugal has Palhete. Spain has Clarete. Côte-Rôtie has been co-fermenting Viognier into Syrah for generations and nobody thought to call it a trend. Everything about blouge is old except the word.

It’s the word that’s worth something. A style with no name has nowhere to live: no category, no line on a wine list, nothing a customer can ask for out loud without a long explanation. Blouge sorted that in one syllable, and like it or loathe it, it’s fun to say; which helps more than it probably should.

I’ve also recently seen blouge movement being called the “blouvment”, which is either brilliant or a cry for help.

The climate bit

Warmer vintages have been handing growers riper red grapes and higher alcohol whether they asked for them or not. White grapes growing in the next row are one of the simplest ways to pull a wine back towards freshness. Some say that’s the reason co-ferments are having a revival, and there’s definitely something in it. But it’s also part of a wider mood: new-wave winemakers breaking out of the ordinary, and younger drinkers lapping it up.

That gives blouge a practical reason to exist, not just a fashionable one.

Where the trend is right now 

Blouge sits in that lovely early stage where the trade is ahead of the shopper. What it doesn’t have yet is the shelf. Walk into most shops and ask for a blouge and you’ll get a blank look, which I know, because I’ve tried it.

That’s the interesting bit. We’ve handed it a name, a narrative and a bit of momentum; the consumers haven’t quite caught up yet. For the UK, I’d put blouge firmly in the ’emerging’ lane. Definitely not mainstream, but probably not niche for much longer, and the sort of playful wine story that travels quickly once the right bottles start appearing in fridges, bars and barbecue ice buckets. 

Why its one to watch

The commercial appeal is that it barely needs explaining. Shoppers already buy cold wine in summer. They already know rosé, they already know red and white. Blouge rearranges things people recognise, which means the customer pitch survives a busy Saturday afternoon on the shop floor. In restaurants and bars, it would make a brilliant by-the-glass listing. It gives a server a story they can tell in seconds, it works as an aperitif, with nibbles, and it lets a guest try something a bit different without committing to a whole bottle.

The slight problem with finding a blouge is that it may not admit to being one. 

For now, it still feels like a trade or wine-nerd term, so plenty of bottles that fit this style won’t call it out on the label. You’re more likely to see co-ferment, field blend, or simply light red. My guess is that will change as recognition builds.

It’s also a story the red category badly needs. Blouge is an experimental mash-up that happens to produce something easy drinking and chillable, in a colour people want to photograph. It’s got indie energy, and it feeds straight off the chillable red trend that’s already working. It’s a bit of fun, and red wine could do with some.

If you’re thinking about a chilled red for next summer, this is the conversation to be having now. Harvest is underway, and the bottles you’ll be pouring are being decided in wineries over the next few weeks. 

Give it until next August and my dad will ring to tell me all about blouge. And I’ll pretend I’ve never heard of it.

Boutinot’s Blouges to try

Bazar Pinot Noir Gewurztraminer Blouge, IGP Pays d’Oc

Italian Plastic Super Glou

Quinta da Boa Esperança Palhete, Vinho Regional Lisboa

Pyren Vineyard Little RaRa Rouge, Pyrenees, Victoria

Línea Kármán Rioja Clarete, DOCa Rioja

Ontañón Clarete Rosé, DOCa Rioja

Viñas del Cenit Field Blend Tradición, DO Tierra del Vino de Zamora

And more to come…