There was this nun in the bath...

I think I'm being stalked.  Recently, with every turn I have been aware of a malevolent presence - a ghost from my past.  I first became aware of the mysterious lady in blue whilst searching wine articles on the FT under the pretense of designing a business rescue strategy our company.  I can across this article which gives a fascinating history of Peter Max Sichel and his ambition to "set about refining Blue Nun into a single, perfectly positioned product".  As we all know, he was very successful.  Blue Nun then started cropping up on the TV, in Decanter Magazine, and I even found an entry in The Oxford Companion to Wine - which reveals some really scary facts about just how popular this wine once was. Has something changed since my last encounter with the blue lady?

BLUE NUN ORIGINAL 2007

Sainsbury's c.£3.99 (tasted 18.ii-'09)

Herr Sichel's Tafelwein is a clear, pale yellow drop which splashes around the glass.  It has a clean soft bouquet which is floral (elderflower?) and lemon fresh toilet cleaner aroma.  This wine is SWEET (as opposed to a sweet wine) but it does eventually nudge itself along to fruitiness which has a 'smashing orangey bit in the middle'.  Very little acidity is detected and the wine does have a certain cloying character to it.  There is also a distinct lack of body and a negligible length.

At this point the tasting note and recommendation is heading for the 'that was fun now pass the Chablis' section of my wine database BUT...

I opened this bottle on takeway night at Townend Towers, and this week it happened to be Chinese.  So with a box-full of the Pagoda's finest we took the Nun along for the ride, and found what I believe is the perfect accompaniment to Chinese food.  The sweetness of the wine counter-balanced the usual saltiness of the food perfectly, whilst the admittedly limited acidity was just sufficient to cut through any oiliness. This wine knows it's not there to impress but to add a little counter-point to the meal; something I guess it has been doing for fifty years.  There's another in the rack for ready for the next chop-stick shop shock.

Chop chop!

PS if you want to know what happened to the nun in the bath, drop me a line...