Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France’s Greatest Treasure

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The remarkable untold story of France’s courageous, clever vinters who protected and rescued the country’s most treasured commodity from German plunder during World War II.

“To be a Frenchman means to fight for your country and its wine.”
–Claude Terrail, owner, Restaurant La Tour d’Argent

In 1940, France fell to the Nazis and almost immediately the German army began a campaign of pillaging one of the assets the French hold most dear: their wine. Like others in the French Resistance, winemakers mobilized to oppose their occupiers, but the tale of their extraordinary efforts has remained largely unknown–until now. This is the thrilling and harrowing story of the French wine producers who undertook ingenious, daring measures to save their cherished crops and bottles as the Germans closed in on them. Wine and War illuminates a compelling, little-known chapter of history, and stands as a tribute to extraordinary individuals who waged a battle that, in a very real way, saved the spirit of France.

Our Top Reviews

Reviewer: Tom H
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: well-written, fascinating!
Review: You don’t have to love wine to love this book. The book is full of wonderful stories of perseverance during a very difficult time.

Reviewer: EconGuy
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A Fascinating book about France’s most thought after treasure during WW2
Review: In Wine and War, Don and Petie Kladstrup focus on the French wine industry’s response to German occupation. The authors believe that wine defines France. They use an example of a speech given by the president of the French Winegrowers Association, which said, “[wine] contributed to the French race by giving them wit, gaiety and good taste, qualities which set it profoundly apart from people who drink a lot of beer” (10). The thesis of the book is about how people in the wine industry survived during German occupation (11). It is also about the importance of French wine as a commodity.The wine industry did not recover after WWI. There were bitter harvests because several of the vineyards were used as battlefields. There were craters left in the ground from explosives, which altered the nutrients in the soil (18). The demand also decreased because of the Great Depression, which caused some wine growers to go bankrupt from low sales and labor shortages. In Burgundy, production fell by 40% and nearly half of the vineyards went uncultivated (19). The wine industry only started to improve slightly when World War II began because of the increase in demand of French wine from the French military (31). However, the wine industry began to suffer from another labor shortage because a good portion of the labor was called up to fight in the war (33).When the Germans defeated the French, the Nazis had interest in French wine because of the revenue it could generate. Wine was used as a symbol of power and prestige (45). During German occupation, the Nazis set several different rules on the wine industry. For example, the wine owners could only operate if they sold their wine exclusively to the Germans (63). Sales to French civilians were prohibited in most places. France also saw the Aryanization of the wine industry. The Germans primary interest in French wine was for international trade and giving it to German soldiers (81).While the Germans were extracting the wealth of French wine, wine owners showed forms of resistance. One form of resistance was to send inferior quality of wine to the Germans since the French oversaw their production (94). Another form of resistance was a more risky one, which was emptying wine bottles before the trains were loaded. This would eventually lead to the Nazis using more guards by their train, thus making resistance more difficult (94).After France was liberated by the allies, the wine owners who collaborated were put on trial. The primary motive for wine owners to collaborate was to remain in business to have a source of income to survive through the tough times of occupation (206). Another collaborator was Louis Eschenauer who believed he served as a buffer zone between the French wine industry and the Nazis in order to prevent the Nazis from getting full control over the industry (216). Collaborators such as Eschenauer received a sentence of life in prison while others received the death penalty for treason (220).Although this book is very well written, the authors could have added more to the book. The authors heavily rely on others research for information on politics during German occupation rather than using primary sources. The authors also should have elaborated more on some of their interesting concepts brought up in the book. For example, they mentioned how Germany had interest in French wine for international trade purposes as a way to fund their war, however, they fail to mention the nations that Germany sold the wine to as well as what the Germans spent the profit from selling French wine on.Wine and War is a very interesting book, which provides a better understanding to how France’s top industry responded to German occupation. The authors effectively argue the few choices the wine owners had for remaining in business as well as the heroic courage by some to resist the Nazis. They also provide a vivid picture of the struggles that the wine industry went through during occupation. Although the book has its flaws, it is still worth reading because it provides another unique perspective to the occupied France genre.

Reviewer: Matt S.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Excellent book
Review: I came to this book as a WWII buff and as someone who appreciates wine. Actually, I am more of a beer drinker than a wine drinker. I was struck throughout this book by the reverence the French growers had for wine and the poetic heights they reached in describing their beloved wine. This contrasted with their contempt for the Nazis as beer-drinking louts. I meditated on the distinction between wine as a drink supposedly of the cultured and refined versus beer as a drink of the boorish lower class. Is this wine snobbery? Or is it simply a reflection of the fact that generally beer is less costly to produce and therefore a working man’s drink? But in France, even the working man drinks wine. Is it a matter of regional differences, as in Germany, where both wine and beer are produced? Or is there something intrinsically superior to wine as a civilizing influence, as the French seem to believe? That was the tantalizing question as I read this book, and I made sure to drink a bottle of French wine (Macon-Villages) as I read it. I can’t say that I reached a definitive conclusion–more research is undoubtedly necessary, but I can say that this is an excellent book and a great historical read. The authors went to primary sources at many of the leading wine houses of France and backed that up with impressive archival research to tell this story. Anyone with an interest in this subject matter will not be disappointed with this book. Highly recommended.

Reviewer: A floridian
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Arrived ahead of schedule and in perfect condition
Review: An excellent copy of the book.

Reviewer: Bridget Perry
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great read
Review: Very interesting read!

Reviewer: Jill Clardy
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Another Look at WWII – How the French Saved Their Wine Industry
Review: I read “Wine and War” shortly after returning from a 3-week trip to France during which we became much more knowledgeable about French wines and their place in France’s culture and history and raison d’etre. Remnants of WWII still prevail, particularly in the historical center of the many small villages that we visited. Two aspects of France’s rich history emerge repeatedly in the national conscience – the Revolution and the Occupation.The book covers the elaborate schemes enacted by the French to protect their valuable cellars, their vineyards and their wine-making operations from the looting, gluttonous Germans. Germany actually established “Weinfuhrers” whose sole responsibility was to organize the sourcing, purchasing and shipment of wines from France to Germany. The French winemakers learned to seal off sections of their cellars to avoid detection, to sell the Germans only their inferior wines, to make new wines look like old wines by dusting the bottles, and many other techniques.A huge cache of fine wines was repatriated from Eagle’s Nest at the end of the war in a bizarre and intricate wartime evacuation. Cases of wine were strapped onto stretchers and carefully lowered hundreds of meters to a waiting convoy of trucks. Soldiers stripped their tanks and trucks of non-essential equipment to make room for the precious cargo. This episode demonstrated the true reverence of the French for their sacred wines.It’s a well-researched book. The final ~14% includes Footnotes, Bibliography, Glossary, etc. In the Epilogue the author discusses how some of the oldest and most respected wineries re-established themselves after the war. There is a lot of interesting history and culture in this book, not only about wine, but about the wine dynasties and the resistance movement that helped France to retain its dignity and reclaim the great heritage as the finest winemakers in the world. I really enjoyed reading about places we had visited during our tour. We enjoyed a wine tasting in a 13th century cellar in Beaune, the wine capital of Burgundy and I wondered whether it had been bricked off during the war to protect the inventory.

Reviewer: Paul
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Dropping, you know something about wine
Review: Excellent read although it’s very historically based it reads like a novel

Reviewer: Martins Dzendzs
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Book arrived as expected and was in very good condition

Reviewer: Shubham aggarwal
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Awesome

Reviewer: John Park
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Very good book, interesting, entertaining and moving

Reviewer: Kindleユーザー
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: ナチス占領下のフランスで銃だけでなく、ワインのボトルでレジスタンスを試みたフランスのワイン人に、プライドと文化を守る意志を感じます。ワインは飲むだけではなく、読み物としても味わうことができます。フランスワインの今に続く中心人物の名前が多数出てくるので、フランスワインの知識があるほど、さらに発見と味わいが深まります。これからフランスのワインを、心して味わいたいと思わせてくれる一冊です。

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I loved it. I thought it explained the history of the wine very well, but more importantly put it into the context of the era and of the war. however, my boyfriend liked it less as he thought it was too anecdotal. it must be said that he tends to only read non-fiction and is a history buff, whereas I am not.

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