Wine dinner: Peter Sichel (1922-2025)
Peter M. F. Sichel (1922–2025) who made Blue Nun (1923) popular between 1950s to 1980s, had many lives:
- born in Mainz, Germany to a Jewish wine family: his grandfather started H. Sichel Söhne in 1857.
- educated in UK: St Cyprian’s School & Stowe School
- escaping Nazi, his family settled in France
- interned bec he was German when he apprenticed in his family biz in Bordeaux, at start of WW II
- he escaped to US via Portugal & Spain
- joined US army OSS after Pearl Harbor bombing
- after ww ii, head SSU later became CIA, in Berlin, till 1960
- took over family’s wine business … making Blue Nun the largest brand in the world
I drank a lot of Blue Nun in Hong Kong. There wasn’t much competition. I remembered a Chinese lady Sabrina was doing German wine biz in HK at time but it was a very small scale operation.
Tonight, our wine club wine-dinner invited his daughter Bettina Sichel to join us. Three of the four wines we tasted are from her Laurel Glen Vineyard in Sonoma, which she purchased in 2011.
- 2022 Laurel Glen Blanc Slate
- 2023 Laurel Glen Rosella Rose
- 2018 Laurel Glen Estate Cab Sauvignon, Sonoma Mountain
- Cab Sauvignon
Her vineyard is similar to the few we visited in 2015: small and exclusive, and you need to join their club. Distributor Tom who knows Jay. Her grapes are NE exposure (cooler side) that gives her crop extra power.
Why did her father sell his vineyard?
记得在香港时 Blue Nun 大概是最出名的白餐酒. 今晚的酒商就是他三个娃之一. 她说爸爸把生意卖了… 她最后自己买了一个加州的酒园. 今晚四个酒 三个是她的. 非常喜欢
和
.
