Château Prieuré-Lichine: The Modern Era
Durand Delains held onto his new property for several decades, but he eventually sold it to a Monsieur Pagès (died 1852), who upon his death bequeathed it to his widow, a Madame Rosset, who was in charge when the estate was classified as quatrième grand cru classé in the 1855 classification. She subsequently remarried but maintained control of her property through difficult times, including the arrival of oidium in the vineyard, which helped bring the actively cultivated area of vines down to just 11 hectares.
Phylloxera killed its first vines here in 1879, followed by mildew in 1882, and understandably Madame Rosset was soon ready to sell. The new owners, who acquired the sorry-looking vineyard in 1886, were Messieurs Victor Rulh and Gabriel Rousseau (died 1899). They replanted the vineyard and did much to restore the property to good-working order. Rousseau passed away in 1899, after which Rulh continued on alone, although only for a few more years, eventually selling the property in 1903.
The buyer this time was Victor Saint-Ubéry, who paid 42,100 francs for the pleasure, after which he renamed the estate Le Prieuré de Cantenac. He then passed control of the estate to his son-in-law Frédéric Bousset, who was in charge at the estate from 1925 onwards. He plainly wasn’t that interested in it though, because the estate was soon back on the market, and in 1928 it was acquired by the négociant Michel de Wilde.
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