Book Review: Wine and War

The French, the Nazis & the Battle for France’s Greatest Treasure By; Don and Petie Kladstrup.

This book describes a specific part of the greatest catastrophe of the 20^th century; the Nazis and their campaign of pillaging France’s greatest asset. The Germans occupied parts of France during WWII, but they didn’t succeed in invading the French spirit. In very detailed short stories about the wine regions in France, the co-authors Mr. & Ms. Kladstrup reveal a unique part of the history.

For some of us who are not into heavy history writings, this is a very special, light book. For those of us who are very interested in wine, and wine regions, it is a great piece of documentary essays, most of them being tales passed down through the generations.

The Germans had moved amazingly fast. By June 12 (1940) they had overrun Champagne. Two days later, they entered Paris. Other troops were rolling down the highway past the vineyards of Burgundy…their primary destination, however was the port city of Bordeaux on the Atlantic coast, the commercial center of France’s wine trade.

When I started to read “Wine and War”, I never previously realized how so much information could be so narrow, but yet so interesting. The terminology used in the book is easy to read, and well explained. Thus, you can easily learn a great deal of the subject. For instance, Hitler’s hidden resort house at the town of Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps, infamously known as the “Eagle Nest” (Adlershorst). It was here where the Fuehrer gathered an inventory of more than half-a-million bottles of French wine (all was stolen from the best French vineries during the war). The finest one, including Chateau Lafiate-Rothschild, Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, Chateau Latour, Chateau d’Yquem and more were store in a cave. Nevertheless, Hitler himself knew nothing about wine, and in fact, he put in charge his assistant Marshal Gorig as one who had wine knowledge.

The Germans initiated a regional government system to control wine production during the war. With cooperation from the French Vichy government, representatives from the Nazi government had arrived to a specified region in south France, i.e. Bordeaux, Champagne, where he negotiated wine prices. The Nazis had a set price which they were willing to pay for French wine production, and shipped all the wine to Germany. From there, it was delivered to other parts of the world. The great stories in the book describe courageous French wine producing families who succeeded to keep their land and wine production under such tough conditions. Some families for instance, built a secret wall inside their personal caves to hide the better wine behind those bricks. Other wines were intently labeled as poor, non-refined wine even though they were full bodied, great wine labels.

On June 6, 1944 D-Day, the long-awaited invasion of Europe was underway. The Nazis pulled out their troops from the Loire Valley and other areas of south France. Region after region, winery after vinery, were finally librated when the American tanks made their move in the fields. Church bells began ringing, and celebrations were taking place. Looking forward to a better, more peaceful wine season, the French peasants were filled with romance and had their own philosophy about wine making, love and romance.

The peasants who worked the vines believed there was a special relation between war and grapes; they said that Good Lord sends a poor wine crop when war starts and a fine, festive one to mark its end.

And they were right. The author tells us about the awful vintage of 1939, whereas the 1945 crop was one of the finest ever.