MADRID — Wine lovers have a language of their own, filled with colorful ways to describe how the drink is made and the many sensations that it conjures up.

But when it comes to describing a wine’s actual color, should a simple word like “blue” be banned?

A handful of young entrepreneurs from the Basque region of Spain challenged the country’s wine establishment in 2015 when they started selling a blue wine.

There is no disputing the wine’s color, a neon blue that comes from adding two natural ingredients, indigo dye and anthocyanin, a pigment found in grape skin.

Yet last month, the start-up company, known as Gïk, said it was forced to remove “blue wine” from its labels and slightly change the composition of its drink, after being slapped with a fine from the Basque section of Spain’s Agriculture Ministry for violating wine regulations.