Alexis Lichine

He studied economics at the University of Pennsylvania but dropped out because he felt he wasn't learning anything. Read Less

On the outbreak of World War II, Lichine caught the last American ocean liner out of Bordeaux, the S.S. Manhattan. During the war he served in the United States Army Military Intelligence, in Europe and North Africa and was discharged as a Major. He was given the rank of Major by the commanding headquarters of the Delta Bar Section of the US Military Intelligence. Read Less

In the same year he married the Countess Renee de Villeneuve in New York. Read Less

In the same year he started billboard advertising of his wine tasting room at the Prieure. This was the first time in the wine industry that professional wine tasting rooms were set up for the general public. Read Less

Their first child Alexandra was born in 1957. Their second child Alexis Andrew Serge (Sacha) was born in 1960. Read Less

His efforts led him to be referred to as "the doyen of unofficial classification compilers". Read Less

He was succeeded by his son Sacha (then aged 28), who later moved to Switzerland and sold Prieure-Lichine in August 1999. In 2008, he was posthumously inducted into the Wine Writers' Hall of Fame by the Wine Media Guild of New York.

Starting around 1940, 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 give their wines semi-generic labels. 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 Vineyards was the first winery 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. Read Less