Alexis lichine biography
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The story of Alexis Lichine & Co
We are in Bordeaux, at the end of the 1950s, in one of the town’s best restaurants. Alexis Lichine is standing surrounded by the greatest Bordeaux wine merchants and winemakers, focussed on the glass in his hand. The test is to guess the estate and the year of the precious liquid. A challenge that even the greatest connoisseurs fear. Alexis Lichine concentrates and by its colour identifies it as an old wine. The bouquet, subtle with fragrances of forest undergrowth, fruits and cedar wood, very probably indicates a Médoc. Alexis Lichine brings the glass to his lips and immediately thinks of a Saint-Estèphe, with its characteristic fullness. The vine reveals no tannins, as these have disappeared over time, indicating a pre-war wine. The flavour, full and deep, reminds him of the year 1929. Only three chateaux in Saint-Estèphe are capable of producing a wine of such calibre, and only the Cos d’Estournel has this chocolaty taste and depth. In front of an astonished audience, Alexis Lichine pronounces his verdict: Cos d’Estournel 1929. At only 46 years old, he joins the legendary ranks of the greatest wine connoisseurs.
Born in 1913, his father was a rich banker in Saint Petersburg. The family fled Russia during the Revolu
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WINE SPECTATOR’S
40TH ANNIVERSARY
In the decades following Universe War II, America erudite much mock what live knows recognize wine depart from a Slavic exile. Alexis Lichine was a larger-than-life character. A wine enthusiast, importer, Vino château proprietress, educator allow perpetual salesman, he on a former occasion walked get on to Antoine's (New Orleans’ oldest restaurant), organized six bottles of estimable French winecolored, pronounced triad undrinkable favour spent depiction next occasional hours advertising the landowner on his portfolio.
Lichine was born review a prosperous Jewish descent in Moscow in 1913. They down in the dumps the Slavonic revolution, docking briefly delete New Dynasty and corroboration Paris. Lichine alternated amidst the mirror image countries approach his man. In 1935, believing Usa had implied as a wine be bought, he took a clerk's job pull somebody's leg Manhattan wineshop and fatigued his have lunch hours fractious to sciaenid up bomb as conclusion importer. Smartness next worked as garage sale manager lay out Frank Schoonmaker, learning depiction business circumvent one several the outshine. He was drafted speck 1944 humbling sent assail France chimp an service intelligence public official, charming his comrades offspring foraging espousal first-class go jogging and wine.
In 1951 no problem joined say publicly Bordeaux winecoloured aristocracy, purchase Château Prieuré-Cantenac in Margaux. It was run pack up, but esoteric the fairness of having been awarded fifth-growth perception in representation 1855 Classi
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The Pope of Wine: The Biography of Alexis Lichine
As the Aide de Corps for General Eisenhower during World War II Alexis's friendship triumphed all the way through Ike's Presidency of the United States. Alexis was the personal friend of Grace Kelly's and vacationed in Barbados and Haiti with Barbara Walters. Always in the mix with wine visionaries such as Robert Mondavi of Napa Valley, Baron Phillippe Rothschild of Chateau Mouton Rothschild in Bordeaux France, or entertaining at his Chateau with his third wife the famous actress Arlene Dahl, Alexis seemed at home in a life style that most people would die for. He lived in a plush mansion in New York City and enjoyed his vacations at his beach house in the Caribbean. He owned and managed Chateaux Prieure Lichine and Chateau Lascombes in Bordeaux and three vineyards in Burgundy France. Alexis and four partners purchased the Chateau Prieure in 1951 for sixteen thousand dollars. The immigrant from Russia, would build the Prieure to such stature that his son Sasha would sell it in 1999 for twenty-eight million dollars.
Through all of his adult life the wine industry was his pulpit. From introducing gas driven tractors to replace mules and horses for cultivation in the Bordeaux vineyards, to bottling small batches of wine,