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| Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure | 
 enlarge | Authors: Donald Kladstrup, Petie Kladstrup
Publisher: Broadway
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $3.75
You Save: $11.20 (75%)
New (33) Used (47) Collectible (1) from $3.75
Avg. Customer Rating:  56 reviews
Sales Rank: 30904
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.7
ISBN: 0767904486
Dewey Decimal Number: 944
EAN: 9780767904483
ASIN: 0767904486
Publication Date: April 30, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 My personal Favorite Book of the Decade March 21, 2006
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a great story that has the good guys winning. All the thrills of a great adventure novel.
 Fun but unreliable December 27, 2005
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Read this book for entertainment but do not regard it as history. Despite the many notes at the end, there is little understanding. Kladstrup places Liebling in France during the war; he was in North Africa after a pre-war assignment in France. He relates a story about hiding bottles in a pond during WWI in Bordeaux. The Germans were never near Bordeaux in WWI, except at sea. Not to say the book is fantasy, but it is a fantastic account of the light side of the war, tiny as the light side was. Imagine the conversation of aging fishermen after the third round. Enjoy and use it as a source for many other books, and especially The New Yorker references.
A nice read November 2, 2005
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a book for a cool autumn day. When I finished it I immediately opened a nice bottle of wine and toasted the authors, whose descriptions had generated my thirst. First and foremost, this is a book about people, wine industry people in the throes of war. And then there are the Nazis, always prime fodder whether the form be fiction or non-fiction. In some ways the book is like an ensemble movie, with a set of parallel plot threads that are woven together at the end. The climax of the book is truly its high point. The end of the war, the magnificent 1945 vintage, and the individual stories, some quite moving, all come together in a warm and comforting crescendo. Whether you're a wine buff or a WWII buff, this is a very nice read. Keep your glass handy.
Rolling out the barrel July 17, 2005
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is a fine bit of feature journalism, preserving a collection of wartime tales that no one else seems to have ever recorded. At this late date many of the stories are told by the children or grandchildren of the people involved, so the preservation of these tales is all the more a service.
The dilemma faced by the French wine industry under the Nazi occupation was stark: How to avoid ruin, either from expropriation or execution. The Vichy government saved the Jewish Rothschild maison by making it a state property. Others banded together and tried to keep the Germans mollified as best they could. They frequently sent inferior grades of wine to the Wehrmacht, but at least one house was always careful to send their best when the German High Command, who knew their wines, sent in an order. And one interesting fact is that the Germans orders of wine served as an intelligence tool: The Wehrmacht's preparation for action could be judged by how much hooch they were stocking up.
The French vintners proved themselves to be masters of concealment and deception. Wine cellars, barns, and such hid their best products, as well as the maquis. There are a few amusing incidents where the discrete cells of the French Resistance crossed trails. In one, a shipment of high-quality wine is hijacked on its way to Germany. The Resistance fighters celebrate with a tipple from the liberated wine, but discover that the casks have been filled with low-grade junk.
At the end, there are a couple of examples of reconciliation. The German "weinfuhrers", who were in charge of supplying the Reich with French wine, went on trial after the war. In one trial, a French wine official, who was also a Resistance member, sticks up for his German counterpart, blaming the Gestapo for the crimes he is charged with, and helps get him acquitted. Another former Nazi humbly writes to the head of a prominent maison, asking to represent his product in Germany. So the story, like a good wine, ends in a shimmer of bonhomie and good cheer, as much as any story could at the end of such a war.
Interesting view of the effort to preserve what mattered March 5, 2005
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I originally picked up this book because I was amused that a positive book could be written about France's efforts in World War II. When France couldn't hold out for longer than two weeks against Germany's invasion, this book makes clear the effort that the winegrowers and the resgions they lived in went through to preserve something central to France's national identity- wine.
Whether discussing the longing of French prisoners in German hands for wine, or the determined efforts of long-established houses to preseve their stocks and traditions in the face of mounting challenges posed by the German and pro-German Grench authorities intent on looting what they could for their own interests. Some discussion of a moderate amount is paid to the efforts of the heroic French Resistance, whose exploits were truly remarkable and dangerous, and one is able to feel the tension and anxiety that the people in the book felt as times grew worse.
While not a wine afficionado, or a fan of France's official efforts during the Second World War, this book was hard to put down, and the shorter length of this book came far too quickly. I learned a lot, came away with greater respect for France and its culture, and hope that the authors continue their writing efforts, as long as it's not another wine book.
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