WINE AND WAR by Don & Petie Kladstrup

Note: I am not a paid reviewer, and I have purchased this title to read for my personal enjoyment.

Magnificent Chateaus in France’s wine regions front some great legacy family vineyards and the Kladstrup’s have researched the war-time histories of some of the most famous names—Drouhin, Rothschild, Taittinger. Not surprisingly, today’s legatees of the great Chateaus owe much to the generation that endured Nazi occupation. Production fell by 50% from 1939 to 1942 due to labor, equipment and equine shortages, repurposing of pesticides and production chemicals, and cessation of Allied country markets. The Nazis requisitioned vast quantities of French wine to Germany at low prices and some of them outright looted wine stocks. Anecdotes are skillfully weaved into a moving and sometimes even humorous portrait of life in occupied France and the crafty measures that wine purveyors took to preserve their fine wines for France and foil the Nazis. We are witness to concealments of rare and fine vintages including sending “plonk” that sometimes satisfied the unrefined tastes of the Nazis; harrowing clandestine activities of the French resistance; and determined persistence of the human spirit during captivity in Nazi prisons. Ultimately there is much triumph in winemaker stories, like “the day the soft sounds of American rubber-soled boots replaced the harsh bangs of the German hob-nailed boots.” A friend gave me this title and I found it a most satisfying read about a somewhat arcane corner of WW2 history.