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Telegraph

11-03-2025

SIR – I greatly enjoyed reading about the fascinating life of Peter Sichel (Obituaries, March 6), who popularised Blue Nun wine in the 1970s.
About 18 years ago, I enrolled on Michael Schuster's excellent wine-tasting course, which he ran from his house in Islington. It was aimed at complete beginners, but we were a mixed group that included people with good knowledge of wine, as well as a young man who worked in a restaurant and was hoping to train as a sommelier.
About halfway through the course, after Michael had taught us how to identify key basic tastes in wine – alcohol, acidity, dryness/sweetness, bitterness – he set us a simple blind tasting of some white wines, and asked us to choose which one we thought was most balanced.
The majority of us chose the same wine, at which point Michael took mischievous delight in removing the cover from the bottle, revealing it to be Blue Nun. The class erupted into groans and laughter.
However, as Michael cheerfully explained to a roomful of red faces, it was an important lesson in 'wine snobbery'. While Blue Nun was by no means a great wine, it was nevertheless a 'well-made' one.
I imagine the young man in the class went on to make a fine career for himself as a sommelier. He was the only person who didn't choose the Blue Nun.
Kate Quill
London W14
SIR – As a teenager in the 1960s, I drank beer when I went out. My parents would serve gin and tonic or sherry to their guests. There came a time, however, when I would be invited to events where it was more appropriate to bring wine. I brought Blue Nun, as it was the only one I had heard of, and I would not be the only guest to do so.
I now realise that I learnt about this wine because of the brilliant advertising by Peter Sichel, who must have done more than anyone to introduce the concept of drinking wine to the middle classes in this country.