Last month sadly saw the very last screening of This Week, by far in my opinion the best political show on TV. Hosted by Andrew Neil who’s biting satire made Thursday evenings a viewing must. Andrew made regular references to well know political figures drinking Blue Nun wine .... For those of us who are of a generation where Blue Nun was our first introduction to drinking wine, I am sure this would have brought back many memories.
First launched in 1923 by H. Sichel Sohne (Mainz). In the 1950’s it was exported and advertised as a wine that could be drunk throughout an entire meal. Classified as a Liebfraumilch, it was to become hugely popular and can be said to have been the first wine to have been produced and effectively marketed with an international mass market in mind.
Blue Nun met the demand for easy drinking semi sweet wine and really took off in the USA and UK after the war.
Selling at a premium price, at its peak in the mid 80’s annual sales in the USA were 1.25 million cases with another 750,00 cases sold elsewhere.
The brands popularity declined in the 90’s with the general decline in easy drinking German wines. It was purchased by the Mosel based family firm Langguth in 1996. They repositioned the brand, changing the grapes to 30% Riesling, making it less sweet. It was reclassified from a Liebfraumilch to a regular QBA.
In 2001 the brand was extended to include an Ice wine, a Languedoc Merlot and Spanish rose. In 2009 Blue Nun Gold was launched, a sparkling wine containing flakes of 22 carat gold aimed at young women drinkers.