Alexis hired Pierre de Wilde (from Château du Tertre) as his assistant wine buyer. In 1950 Lichine became the export manager for Château Haut-Brion. In 1955 Lichine founded Alexis Lichine Negociants in Long Island City, New York. He moved to Margaux to set up a shipping organization, Lichine & Cie., which became a leading exporter of first quality wines. In 1951 Lichine purchased Château Prieuré-Lichine and in 1952 also became part owner and manager of Château Lascombes. 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. In 1953 he purchased parcels in Latricieres in Chambertin and Bonnes Mares in Chambolle-Musigny. In 1955 Alexis Lichine married Gisele Edenbourgh. Their first child Alexandra was born in 1957. Their second child Alexis Andrew Serge (Sacha) was born in 1960. In 1959 Lichine was a member of a committee that unsuccessfully launched a bid to revise the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855. Undeterred, Lichine published his own Classification des Grands Crus Rouges de Bordeaux in 1962 and made several revisions in the following years while campaigning for changes to a classification he contended was outdated. His efforts led him to be referred to as "the doyen of unofficial classification compilers". Lichine served as an expert taster in the New York Wine Tasting of 1973. In 1987, Lichine was chosen the "Man of the Year" by the wine magazine Decanter. Alexis Lichine died of cancer at Château Prieuré-Lichine on June 1, 1989, aged 75. 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. Varietal Labeling 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