Alexis Lichine

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Wine authority, entrepreneur, and writer Alexis Lichine (1913-1989) was born in Moscow. After emigrating to France at the time of the Russian Revolution of 1917, then to the United States in 1919, he enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania. He was later hired by wine merchant Frank Schoonmaker as his national sales manager. During the Second World War he served in the United States Army Military Intelligence, in Europe and North Africa and was discharged as a Major.

Lichine and Schoonmaker promoted the idea that California producers should label their wines by the grape variety or varieties from which they were made. The standard practice among New World producers was to label their wines generically. That is, they named them after the regions whose wines they resembled. For example, full-bodied red varieties might be labeled "Burgundy, " whereas crisp whites might be labeled "Chablis."

California's Wente was the first vintner to adopt the practice. After calling its Sauvignon Blanc by its varietal name rather than labeling it "Graves," Lichine and Schoonmaker found its sales volume to increase several-fold. More important, they were able to sell it in the important east coast U.S. market. Others, such as Robert Mondavi, soon adopted the practice, which has become the standard for New World (and, increasingly, some Old World) wines.

When Lichine asked for full partnership in the company, Schoonmaker declined and Lichine left. He moved to Bordeaux where he purchased Chateau Prieure-Lichine and also became part owner and manager of Château Lascombes, both in the Médoc. His shipping organization, Lichine & Cie. in Margaux became a leading exporter of first quality wines.

Lichine served as an expert taster in the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976 and in the earlier New York Wine Tasting of 1973.

Lichine’s writings included Wines of France, (1951, revised 1955) Guide to Wines and Vineyards of France, and Alexis Lichine’s Encyclopedia of Wines and Spirits. New York times wine critic Frank J. Prial asserted that "Alexis Lichine, the Russian-American who loved France but hated the French, taught his adopted country to drink wine."