Peter Sichel

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Peter Sichel
Born
Peter Max F. Sichel

(1922-09-12) September 12, 1922 (age 101)
Mainz, Germany
Occupation(s)Wine merchant, author
Known forCreator of Blue Nun Wine
FamilyAlex Sichel (daughter)
Sylvia Sichel (daughter)

Peter Max F. Sichel (born September 12, 1922)[1] is a German-American wine merchant and former operative of US secret services, who created the Blue Nun wine brand, for a while the largest international wine brand in the world. Prior to this he ran the CIA's operations in Berlin during the early stages of the Cold War.

Biography

Early life

Sichel was born in Mainz, Germany, in September 1922, in to a Jewish family,[2] where his grandfather's family wine business, H. Sichel Söhne had been established in 1837.[3] He was educated in Germany and then in 1935 was sent to be educated in England. He attended St Cyprian's School[4] and Stowe School.[5] While he was at school in England, his parents escaped from Nazi Germany on a ruse, and the family settled in France. The firm had offices in London and Bordeaux, and at the start of World War II, 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, and worked at the US Office of Strategic Services, running agents in Germany for which he was given the Distinguished Intelligence Medal.[6][7] Shortly after the War, he was sent to Berlin to head the secret Strategic Services Unit. 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).[7]

Sichel continued to work for the Central Intelligence Agency 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, then a large drinks company. At this time, wine was taking off as a drink in America, overtaking fortified wine, 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.[8]

Sichel has often appeared on television in Germany as a witness to the immediate post-war years in Berlin[9][10] 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. He was president of the International Wine and Spirit Competition in 1991. Until 2006 he owned the Bordeaux Château Fourcas-Hosten in Listrac, which he sold to Hermès.[11]

The Blue Nun Wine brand is referenced in popular culture by band The Beastie Boys, as a track from there third album Check your Head[12]

Personal life

Sichel is the father of the late filmmaker Alex Sichel and the screenwriter Sylvia Sichel.[13] He turned 100 in September 2022.[14]

Publications

  • Peter M.F. Sichel and Judy Ley, Which Wine: The Wine Drinker's Buying Guide, 1975, ISBN 0-06-013867-X
  • Peter M.F. Sichel, The Wines of Germany: Completely Revised Edition of Frank Schoonmaker's Classic, 1980, ISBN 0-8038-8100-2
  • 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, ISBN 978-1-4808-2406-5

References

  1. ^ Sichel, Peter M F. "United States Public Records Index". Family Search. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
  2. ^ "Wer sind wir ? - Négoce familial à Bordeaux". 2016-09-15. Archived from the original on 2016-09-15. Retrieved 2021-04-09.
  3. ^ "Peter Sichel" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 May 2011. Retrieved 21 April 2011.
  4. ^ Peter M.F. Sichel, The Secrets of My Life, 2016
  5. ^ "News From the American Friends of Stowe". Stowemail. 5 (4). Stowe School. 22 November 2013. Archived from the original on 9 April 2014. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
  6. ^ Robinson, Jancis (10 January 2009). "The man with wine in his veins". Financial Times. Retrieved 21 April 2011.
  7. ^ a b Anderson, Scott (5 October 2020). "Oldest Living CIA Agent Says Russia Probably Targeted Trump Decades Ago". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
  8. ^ Robinson, Jancis, ed. (2006). The Oxford Companion to Wine (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-860990-2.
  9. ^ Robinson, Jancis. "New York's Mr Fixit". JancisRobinson.com. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
  10. ^ "- YouTube". YouTube.
  11. ^ "Fourcas Hosten sold". Decanter. 25 September 2006.
  12. ^ Rebecca Murphy. "The Remarkable Life of Wine Legend Peter Sichel".
  13. ^ "Peter MF Sichel's the Secret of My Life". 13 May 2016.
  14. ^ Dreisbach, Sofia (12 September 2022). "Ex-Spion Peter Sichel wird 100: "Ich brauche Projekte, um am Leben zu bleiben"" [Ex-spy Peter Sichel turns 100: "I need projects to stay alive"]. FAZ (in German). Retrieved 27 November 2022.
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