The Pope of Wine

Book excerpt: 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, Alexis Lichine was unbelievably ahead of the wine curve. He literally changed the face of advertising (and ruffled many feathers in Bordeaux) as he installed the first outdoor billboard campaign proudly promoting his own Chateaux and tasting rooms. He was so influential in the wine .business that he convinced the California wine makers early on to use varietal names on their wine labels such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir instead of European copied names such as Sauterne and Rhine wine. Add to this mix were three comprehensive wine books under his penmanship.