Maison Sichel

The house

Maison Sichel has traded in Bordeaux since 1883 as a family house, and the 7th generation is now at work in it. In the 1880s and 1890s it traded as Sichel & Co. and sold Bordeaux and Burgundy at public auctions in Mainz, run for it by H. Sichel Söhne. On March 20, 1891 one such sale put 196 hogsheads of Bordeaux and 17 of Burgundy under the hammer. In 1897 Friedrich Eugen Bernays and Hermann Nathan-Sichel, both of Bordeaux, joined H. Sichel Söhne of Mainz as partners entitled to represent the firm. In Bordeaux the house bought the classed growths as its neighbors did. A book on the classed growths of the Médoc printed in London in 1920 lists Sichel among the buyers of the 1905 vintage of Brown-Cantenac, the Margaux estate now called Cantenac Brown.

The family’s place in Margaux came in 2 steps. In 1938 the Sichels and the Mähler-Besses became owners of Château Palmer, the third growth; in 1964 the Miailhes were co-owners with them, and the 2 families share it still. Peter and Diana Sichel settled at Château Angludet, at Cantenac, in 1961 and set out to restore it. Angludet joined the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux in 1980, and Benjamin Sichel runs it today.

Since 2009 the house has been a partner in Domaine Peter Sichel, in Corbières, and since 2019 in Château Daviaud. It has managed the company that owns Château d’Argadens, in the Entre-deux-Mers, since 2020, and is a partner in it. Max Sichel, of the 7th generation, looks after the British market, and he and Daisy Sichel have sat on the board since 2020. Allan Sichel, the chairman and managing director, was president of the federation of Bordeaux négociants (merchants who buy from the châteaux and sell on), then of the Bordeaux Wine Council from 2016 to 2019 and again from 2022 to 2025.

At a glance

Kind

Négociant

Based in

Bordeaux, quai de Bacalan

Founded

1883

Owner

The Sichel family

Direction

Allan Sichel, chairman and managing director

Châteaux

d’Argadens, managed since 2020; family holdings: Angludet, since 1961, and a share of Palmer, since 1938

Brands

Sichel; Domaine Peter Sichel, in Corbières

In the record

Brown-Cantenac, 1905 vintage