Peter Max F. Sichel (born September 12, 1922) is a German-American wine merchant and former operative of US secret services, who created the

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 a very popular international brand. For most of its existence, Blue Nun was a single Germ ...

wine brand, for a while the largest international wine brand in the world. Prior to this he ran the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

's operations in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

during the early stages of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

Biography

Early life

Sichel was born in Mainz, Germany, in September 1922, in to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family, where his grandfather's family wine business, H. Sichel Söhne had been established in 1837. He was educated in Germany and then in 1935 was sent to be educated in England. He attended

St Cyprian's School St Cyprian's School was an English preparatory school for boys, which operated in the early 20th century in Eastbourne, East Sussex. Like other preparatory schools, its purpose was to train pupils to do well enough in the examinations (usuall ...

and

Stowe School , motto_translation = I stand firm and I stand first , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent school, day & boarding , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Headmaster ...

. While he was at school in England, his parents escaped from

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

on a ruse, and the family settled in France. The firm had offices in London and

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

, and at the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, while he was apprenticed to the Bordeaux firm, he was interned as he was German.

Service with the CIA

Sichel escaped to the USA via Portugal and Spain and join the US Army a week after the bombing of

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...

, and worked at the US

Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...

, running agents in Germany for which he was given the

Distinguished Intelligence Medal The Distinguished Intelligence Medal is awarded by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency for performance of outstanding services or for achievement of a distinctly exceptional nature in a duty or responsibility. Recipients This list includes only ...

. Shortly after the War, he was sent to Berlin to head the secret

Strategic Services Unit The Strategic Services Unit was an intelligence agency of the United States government that existed in the immediate post–World War II period. It was created from the Secret Intelligence and Counter-Espionage branches of the wartime Office of ...

. He reported in early 1946 on the methods the Soviets were using to control the political parties in the Russian sector of Germany (which became

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

). Sichel continued to work for the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

in Berlin, Washington and Hong Kong until 1960, when he left, saying "I left because the CIA did things I didn’t like, such as send people into the Ukraine to work in fabricated resistance groups. They were potentially being sent to their deaths. I made a huge fuss."

Wine entrepreneur

He took over the family wine import business in New York, which he dissolved, instead dealing with

Schieffelin Schieffelin may refer to: *Samuel Schieffelin (1811–1900), an American author of religious tracts. *Bradhurst Schieffelin (1824–1909), an American political activist during the Civil War, who later became a member of the People's Party *Eugene ...

, then a large drinks company. At this time, wine was taking off as a drink in America, overtaking

fortified wine Fortified wine is a wine to which a distilled spirit, usually brandy, has been added. In the course of some centuries, winemakers have developed many different styles of fortified wine, including port, sherry, madeira, Marsala, Commanda ...

, and he advertised Blue Nun as a wine you can drink "right through the meal", using widespread advertising. At its peak in the 1980s, annual sales in the US reached 1.25 million cases. Sichel has often appeared on television in Germany as a witness to the immediate post-war years in Berlin when he was head of the CIA in Berlin, and wrote several books on German wine and a guide to wine. He became chairman of the German parent company in 1984. By the 1990s, the Sichel company was sold to another German company, Langguth, and Peter had arranged sale of part of the Schieffelin company to

LVMH LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (), commonly known as LVMH, is a French holding multinational corporation and conglomerate specializing in luxury goods, headquartered in Paris. The company was formed in 1987 through the merger of fashion house ...

. He was president of the

International Wine and Spirit Competition The International Wine & Spirit Competition is an annual wine and spirit competition founded in 1969 by the German/British oenologist Anton Massel. Each year the competition receives entries from over 90 countries worldwide. The awards given by t ...

in 1991. Until 2006 he owned the

Château Fourcas-Hosten in Listrac, which he sold to

Hermès Hermès International S.A., or simply Hermès ( , ), is a French luxury design house established in 1837. It specializes in leather goods, lifestyle accessories, home furnishings, perfumery, jewelry, watches and ready-to-wear. Its logo, since ...

. The Blue Nun Wine brand is referenced in popular culture by band ''

The Beastie Boys ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'', as a track from there third album ''Check your Head''

Personal life

Sichel is the father of the late filmmaker Alex Sichel and the screenwriter Sylvia Sichel. He turned 100 in September 2022.

Publications

* Peter M.F. Sichel and Judy Ley, Which Wine: The Wine Drinker's Buying Guide, 1975, * Peter M.F. Sichel, The Wines of Germany: Completely Revised Edition of

Frank Schoonmaker Frank Musselman Schoonmaker (August 20, 1905 – January 11, 1976) was an American travel guide writer, wine writer and wine merchant. He was born in Spearfish, South Dakota, and attended for two years at Princeton University, after which he droppe ...

's Classic, 1980, * Peter Sichel, On Wine: How to Select and Serve: Vol 1, audio recording, Columbia Special Products
CSP 151
. * Peter M.F. Sichel, The Secrets of My Life, 2016,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sichel, Peter 1922 births Wine writers Living people Businesspeople from Mainz People from Rhenish Hesse People educated at Stowe School People educated at St Cyprian's School German emigrants to the United States German centenarians American centenarians Men centenarians