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The first movie my soldier dad took me to was Pork Chop Hill, a Korean War epic. Since then, I've been fascinated by this film genre and as a wine writer I was instantly drawn to Wine & War hoping it would illuminate an unknown chapter in the history of war, the story of wine.
"To be a Frenchman means to fight for your country and its wine." said Claude Terrail, owner of Paris's La Tour D'Argent. This book tells the tale of Terrail and other extraordinary Frenchmen who through ingenious and sometimes desperate means waged a battle in the vineyards and cellars as the Germans closed in that, in a very real way, saved the spirit of France.
As the Germans commandeered the best of every cellar, the French 'co-operated' by sending poor vintages, sprinkling in carpet dust to mimic 'age' and mislabeling inferior wines. They hid their best wines behind false walls, underground and in one case, unsuccessfully in a pond.
Until Wine & War, this harrowing and heroic tale had not been told. Authors, Don and Petie Kladstrup, veteran American journalists based in Paris and Normandy, offer no generalizations and no apologies. They simply relate these compelling tales of bravery that included prominent winemaking families like the Hugels, Drouhins, Rothschilds and Tattingers and the bigger story of how World War II affected the French wine industry.
Wine and War is an alternately thrilling and harrowing, but always compelling story of the French and their fight for their country's lifeblood and spirit, its wine.
Reviewed by Judith Lane, wine writer
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