Chateau Prieure Lichine 2014

Thanks to a land donation from the Lords of Blanquefort, the priory of Saint-Didier de Cantenac was founded in the Romanesque era by the Saint-Augustin canons regular of the abbey of Vertheuil around the year 1000. During the AngloGascon period of Guyenne (1154-1453), the abbey was a major stopping-off point in the Médoc for pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela. It also owned the greatest wine estates of the Médoc.

In 1444, the wines produced at the Prieuré de Cantenac were at the top of the wine hierarchy of that era and were taxed by the King at the same rate as the wines of Hermitage and Clos de Vougeot, according to the Hull customs records of 1444*. Margaux was therefore already gaining renown for its wines.

In 1399 vines were wrecked by English sailors as they came up the Gironde estuary. At Margaux they went into the vines and broke off young fruit -bearing shoots to use as firewood for their grill in the port of Bordeaux. This sacrilegious treatment of the sacred plant of Bordeaux caused ill-feeling among the population and brawls broke out. History records show that a fight occurred between two Bordeaux villages over loyalties to the English throne. This difference of opinion was settled in 1405 with an honourable duel in Nottingham, in the presence of England’s King Henry IV. Undeniably, as early as the Middle Ages, the high rank of wines from the Margaux area and those of the Prieuré de Cantenac was already clearly established.