The venture

GIK Live was a wine startup founded by a group of university students in the Basque Country. Its first product was a bright-blue drink made from a wine base with added pigments. Contemporary reporting covered both the product’s international attention and the scepticism it attracted.

The Guardian’s 2016 review called it the “world’s first blue wine” but also noted that coloured alcoholic drinks existed before it. An AFP report from 2018 identified Taig Mac Carthy as a co-founder, reported exports to 21 countries at that time, and described sales of almost 500,000 bottles in 2017. Those dated figures replace later unsourced lifetime-sales and growth claims.

The team used Blue Ocean Strategy as a framing device: enter a traditional category with a visually distinctive, accessible product.

My role, in my account

• Co-founder and CEO: I came up with the products and led the development process
• Business Plan: I designed the business plan
• Spokesperson: I acted as spokesperson for the company and led the efforts to achieve media coverage

These role details are a first-person record. The AFP profile independently supports the co-founder and spokesperson parts.

Video archive

These interviews preserve how the venture was presented at the time. They are primary promotional records, not independent verification of business results.