WHAT I’VE LEARNED | Sacha Lichine, Château d’Esclans
Son of the legendary wine writer, château owner and businessman Alexis Lichine, Sacha Lichine inherited Bordeaux classed growth Château Prieuré-Lichine in 1989 at the age of 28, before selling the property a decade later and investing in Château d’Esclans in Provence. His success there has played a major part in the growth of Provence rosé, and in 2019 he sold a majority share in the property to LVMH
‘There’s a place for serious Provence rosé, and we’re aiming for it. When we started out with Château d’Esclans, there was no rosé market at all. We developed it, and now we’re trying to improve and grow it. We just want to make fine wine.’
‘There’s still a massive snobbism to overcome around Provence rosé. Every day I fight with people who turn their nose up at it. I was talking to a sommelier in another London club the other day, who did the same – and he was Australian. People forget that wine is not about labels, it’s about pleasure. My father used to say, “We’re merchants of pleasure.”’
‘We started by making 130,000 bottles [a year]. Now it’s 15 million. Whispering Angel is around 10 million of that, and is made from 99% purchased fruit. We followed a Champagne approach – Whispering Angel is the NV, and then you move up the chain with the other cuvées [Rock Angel, Les Clans and Garrus].’
‘Grape prices in Provence have quadrupled [due to the demand spurred by the success of the category], which is great, because it means growers can invest in their vineyards – and you have to invest in order to achieve quality.’
‘Why can’t rosé be a year-round drink? 50-60 years ago, white wine was only ever drunk in summer. Today, I think top-end rosé can be on the same table as classed growth Bordeaux. Garrus as an aperitif, Cos d’Estournel with the main.’
‘All we’re trying to say is, “Here’s something for the fine wine lover who is used to drinking Burgundy and Rhône and fine things out of Australia and California and so forth. Here’s a category which is a little lighter in style, a little more precise, and has just 0.7 grams of sugar per litre. It’s not just an aperitif. You can drink it before dinner, during dinner and after dinner.” That was the idea, and I think there’s a spot to be taken becoming the Château Margaux of rosé. Then the perception of rosé will change – and our job will be done.’
‘People say a lot of Provence rosé is average. But there’s average wine everywhere – average Burgundy, average Bordeaux. Trust me, there’s a lot of average Bordeaux.’
‘If you want to build a brand, you have to start in the US. Everything follows from there. But the UK is still the greatest fine wine market in the world. The UK practically invented the fine wine market. The French only started discovering their own fine wines in the 1980s.’
‘Patrick Léon [the Bordeaux consultant, and former winemaker of Mouton-Rothschild who Lichine engaged to make the first d’Esclans wines] wanted to make a Tavel-style rosé. I had fights with him about it. He didn’t believe in the project, he didn’t believe we could take rosé where we took it. His taste was for juicier, richer, Syrah-based wines. But he was the greatest technician I ever met – if you gave him a brief for the profile of wine you wanted, he could make it. So I said to him, “Look, I follow women’s trends – I like women – and women are going towards Sauvignon Blanc.” This was the late-’90s, when Americans thought Sancerre was a grape variety. At night, when I’d been working all day, I’d get home and I just wanted a glass of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. I was amazed how Cloudy Bay had emerged and been able to make a brand out of a place called Marlborough. So I said to him, “If they can do that, think what we can do with something pink, something French, something sexy, something from Provence, from St Tropez.”’
‘I never thought it would be as successful as it has been. And I was all in. I had 50% of the sale of Preiuré-Lichine – I had to pay the banks back, the inheritance tax, and I’d tried some start-ups in Languedoc that were losing money. Then I landed on this stupendous property.’
‘Women have been the key to the success of Provence rosé. They’ve driven the category. It hit that female Sauvignon Blanc consumer just at the right time. Men think they have to drink chest-beating wines, 15% Malbec that makes you think you have a Shetland sweater in your mouth. I grew up drinking Bordeaux that was fresh, elegant and 12.5% alcohol.’
‘I drank quite a bit of Pinot too. My father introduced estate bottling into Burgundy through his Alexis Lichine Selection. He bought the entire crop of Clos de Lambrays’ 1949 vintage. I grew up in my father’s cellar, and the only wine he would never notice was missing was ‘49 Clos de Lambrays. He couldn’t sell it at the time, so there was so much of it around and I would help myself to a few bottles. I told this story to Bernard Arnault [CEO of LVMH, which now owns Clos des Lambrays, and to which Lichine sold 55% of the business in 2019] when he came to see me at Château d’Esclans. The next day, I received a bottle of ‘49 Clos de Lambrays, with a handwritten note from him, and it was absolutely magnificent. I must say he did sort of seduce me.’
‘Bordeaux is a very small town. It’s very incestuous. The sport is trying to sleep with everybody’s else’s wife. You don’t talk to people directly. You have to talk through brokers.’
‘I didn’t want to follow in my father’s footsteps. But ultimately, I think my father would have been very proud of what we’ve achieved with d’Esclans. He would have probably taken half of the money, but he would have been very proud.’
‘My father was ahead of his time. I learned a tremendous amount from him. He was a terrible father, but a great teacher. He always had people around the table, and I had to be like a sponge and take all of it in. I remember him teaching me how to spit, to learn the technique, because he thought it was important to look like you knew what you were doing at tastings. I had to hit a specific rock in the vineyard.’
‘He bought Prieuré in 1952 for £11,000. It was owned by the Archbishop of Bordeaux, who was trying to give it away. But people were worried it would end up costing them money. So my father got together 49 shareholders from Leoville Las Cases to buy it, of whom he was the largest.’
‘I have a celler of old Prieuré-Lichine which I’ve had recorked, but I don’t feel any attachment to the newer vintages. My father’s buried at the château, but I’m totally unemotional about it. I’m happy to have left Bordeaux. These properties are there, and as an owner, you’re just operating them for a period of time.’
‘Everyone thought I was out of my mind when I sold Prieuré-Lichine, a fourth growth, to invest in Provence. But it was the late ‘90s, and Bordeaux was a bore. [Robert] Parker didn’t like Margaux because it makes more elegant wines and Parker was all about power – big, heavy stuff at 15% alcohol, for investors. We had a dinner the other night where everybody had to bring a 100-point Parker bottle. We found all the wines undrinkable.’
‘There’s a bit of a downturn in the wine market right now. All of a sudden, a lot of people are drinking their cellar, and they’re not buying these big, robust body-building sort of wines any more.’
‘The wine business has become a little bit complicated. There’s a flood of it out there. What interests me is to build a brand. Maybe if I’d bought an estate in Pernand-Vergelesses 20 years ago and had a little plot of Corton Charlemagne… but no, I’m 64, I love life in this business, I love fine wine, but I think I’m done with grapes. I’ve been there, done that, and I don’t need the glory any more.’
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