Blue Nun
Blue Nun is a German wine brand launched by the company H. Sichel Söhne (Mainz) in 1923 with the 1921 vintage, and which between the 1950s and 1980s was probably the largest international wine brand. For most of its existence, Blue Nun was a single German wine, which until late 1990s was classified as a Liebfraumilch, but the name is now used for a whole range of wines of various origins. When it was created, the label was designed as a consumer-friendly alternative to the innumerable German wine labels with Gothic script and long, complicated names. With the creation of its UK office in 1927, Sichel targeted the export market. Beginning in the 1950s, Blue Nun was advertised as a wine that could be drunk throughout an entire meal, thereby eliminating the often intimidating problem of wine and food pairing. Blue Nun can be said to have been the first wine to have been produced and effectively marketed with an international mass market in mind.
After World War II, the brand became spectacularly popular in the United Kingdom and the United States, selling for the same price as a second growth red Bordeaux wine. At its peak of popularity in 1984–1985, annual sales in the United States were 1.25 million cases, with another 750,000 cases sold elsewhere.[1]
During the 1970s, a series of popular radio adverts promoting the wine were produced, featuring Stiller and Meara.[2]
From late 1980s, and more in the 1990s, easy-drinking semi-sweet German wines began to lose in popularity in general. Consequently, the brand's popularity declined, and the wine began to be perceived as tacky and dated. This change was reflected in the drink of choice of a popular fictional over-the-hill British television and radio presenter, Alan Partridge.[3] However, sales increased after Blue Nun was purchased by the Mosel-based German family firm Langguth which bought the brand, along with the owning firm, Sichel, in 1996. They repositioned the brand, reclassifying it from a Liebfraumilch to a regular Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete (QbA), changing the grapes from Müller-Thurgau to 30% Riesling, and making it less sweet. It remains relatively low in alcohol at 9.5%.
Brand extension
From 2001 on, Langguth also embarked on a brand extension, and has introduced several other wines under the Blue Nun name, including a German Riesling ice wine, a Languedoc Merlot and a Spanish rosé. Sales in 2004 rose by 11% in the UK, but from a low base.
In 2009, Blue Nun launched Blue Nun Gold, a sparkling wine which contains flakes of 22-carat gold. It is hoped the drink will appeal to young women drinkers, and will help position the brand differently.[4]
References to Blue Nun in popular culture and media
As well as being comedy character Alan Partridge's wine of choice, Blue Nun is mentioned in almost every episode of BBC current affairs programme This Week.[5][6][7]
On the BBC television series Life on Mars (series two, episode four) Blue Nun is mentioned as the wine which will be served at a party hosted by a wife-swapping couple of which the sleazy husband is a murder suspect.[8]
In the comic strip, Achewood, two cats named Roast Beef and Ray get drunk on Blue Nun during a road trip, describing it as "the wine so bad it made the news".[9]
On the Beastie Boys album Check Your Head there is a musical interlude called "The Blue Nun" in which a narrator describes a party held in Peter Sichel's comfortable study in his New York townhouse in which the guests compliment the wine. Peter Sichel was chairman on the Blue Nun company until it was sold in 1995.[10]
On The Beatles song "Long, Long, Long" off the White Album, rattling noises by a Blue Nun wine bottle are heard as a result of a bottle resting on top of a Hammond Organ played by Paul McCartney when he played a certain note. It is accompanied by a Ringo Starr drum roll.
Heston Blumenthal experimented with carbonating Blue Nun using a Sodastream machine in one episode of his novelty cuisine series Heston's Feasts. The programme showed interviews which gave the impression that people either preferred the carbonated wine to genuine champagne or could not tell the difference.[11]
In the television series, Phoenix Nights (season 1, episode 4), Brian Potter (main character) offers his love interest some Blue Nun. Phoenix Nights is a television series devised and written by British comedian Peter Kay. Brian Potter is the owner/operator of a struggling working men's club in Bolton.
Afro Celt Sound System, in their song "Rise Above It", from the album Seed refer to dancing at gigs with Blue Nun. According to the lyrics of the song, heartburn going cheap is the reward for dancing at gigs with a Blue Nun.[12]
In issue #6 of Deadpool Corps, Lady Deadpool warns Brank, talent scout for the Blue Buccaneer/The Champion, "If your spaceship is all shag carpeting and Barry White and Blue Nun on ice, you're in big trouble. I'm not looking for that kind of evening."
References
- ^ Jancis Robinson, ed. (2006). The Oxford Companion to Wine (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-860990-2.
- ^ [1] | Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara Had to Break Out of Their Act to Keep It Together
- ^ Scotsman.com Living
- ^ "Blue Nun Wine is going for gold", MetroOnline, 27 May 2009
- ^ Alan Partridge scripts
- ^ This Week on BBC iPlayer. References to Blue Nun every week
- ^ IMDB – This Week references to Blue Nun
- ^ BBC TV, (British Broadcasting Corporation Television). "Series two episode guide". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 29 August 2012.
- ^ Achewood – January 29, 2003
- ^ "Peter Sichel".
- ^ Heston's 80s Feast
- ^ [2]
Further reading
- Jancis Robinson, (Ed.) The Oxford Companion to Wine. Oxford: Oxford University Press, second edition, 1999.
