Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure
by Donald Kladstrup, Petie Kladstrup
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Book Summary Information
Author: Donald Kladstrup, Petie KladstrupEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-04-30
ISBN: 0767904486
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Broadway
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780767904483
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure
Book Review: Delightfully palatable
Summary: 5 Stars
What a fascinating book. The story of the vignerons and their participation in the French Resistance during WWII is immensely palatable and its anecdotal style makes it a pleasure to read. The authors have stumbled across a rich wine and have let the reader inhale its bouquet to the full.We hear many stories of bravery. For example, Gaston Huet, who spent most of the war in a POW camp, and his organisation of a wine celebration that covered an escape but also gave great heart to those whose horticultural life had been ripped apart by an an occupying army whose senior intent was to milk France of its greatest produce. The race to hide some of the wine regions greatest vintages from the Germans provides some of occupied Frnace's most amusing and fearful stories. We gain an insight to life under the occupation, the food shortages experienced, and the daily dangers, but, above all, we understand the sense of unity that developed amongst those seeking to preserve France's greatest treasure.
Through the stories we learn of the weinfuhrers - men like Klaebisch and Gomer - who were tasked by Berlin to keep a crippling supply of wine and champagne sent to Germany, but who recognised that Goring's wish to strip France of all its wealth would leave a devastated land. These men sought to work with those remaining to produce the wine whilst suffering from the increasing actions of the Resistance who destroyed and stole many shipments of wine and food - the constant letters of Henri Galliard testify to this. Amidst the stories of a people struggling to survive and preserve the great wines of France we see how it played a greater part in the war - for example, large orders to ship to certain fronts indicated where German offensives would commence - right up to the preservation of Paris when the German's left. The only item they destroyed was a wine storage facility.
The authors have combined to produce a lively popular history of France's wine regions during WWII and it anecdotal style makes this a pleasure to read. Immensely fascinating.
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Summary of Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure
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.
Liberty, equality, and fraternity are all well and good, a champion of French culture once remarked. But, he continued, what made France truly superior to its neighbors was the French passion for wine, which "contributed to the French race by giving it wit, gaiety, and good taste, qualities which set it profoundly apart from people who drink a lot of beer."
The commentator may have had a point; after all, write Don and Petie Kladstrup, it was a well-known fact that Adolf Hitler did not like wine. Still, their leader's teetotalism notwithstanding, the Germans showed no distaste for French wine when they invaded France in 1940. Indeed, among the first acts of the occupying army was to seize great stores of wine, sending tens of thousands of barrels to the Third Reich and ordering the conversion of thousands of hectares of vineyards into war production.
Some French vintners, the Kladstrups write in this enjoyable study, went along with orders. Many others, however, including the heads of distinguished houses like Moët et Chandon, engaged in daring and dangerous acts of resistance wherever they could. Some lied about their yields; others built false walls to hide precious vintages; and still others concocted elaborate ruses, such as sprinkling carpet dust into inferior grades of new wine to give it a musty, distinguished flavor. Not every German was fooled, and some partisans of the grape died for their troubles. But some Germans, at considerable risk to themselves, also looked the other way. The Kladstrups fill their pages with memories of the wine war from both sides of the struggle, stories sometimes somber, sometimes amusing, that commemorate those "whose love of the grape and devotion to a way of life helped them survive and triumph over one of the darkest and most difficult chapters in French history." --Gregory McNamee
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