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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:
 What are the authors trying to say? November 27, 2002
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
The book lacked writing style and content. The book is written in a very primitive boring language. Short simple sentences made me think that the book is written for teenagers. Part of it could be due to the translation of the stories from French to English. Now, content... I'm still trying to understand what point the authors were trying to make. This is a convoluted compellation of stories loosely woven in a WWII timeline. Authors have taken stories of 20 rich wine families and applied them to the entire nation, which made for a very rosy account of one of the most tragic wars in the 20th century...
Easy read about wine and war September 20, 2002
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book may not win a litterary prize, however I found it very easy to read with many interesting anecdotes. Some of the subterfuges used by the winegrowers to hide their precious wines from the Germans were ingenious and sometimes desperate. The authors tell us about certain events during the war that we have either forgotten or never realized. This book is for you if you love wine and are curious about the war period. Again, don't expect great writing style, but it is still compelling.
 Breezy Anecdotes July 24, 2002
12 out of 15 found this review helpful
I wasn't looking for some grand new revelations about WWII when I bought this book and I didn't get any. What I did get was an easy-to-read series of inspirational stories and breezy anecdotes about how French vignerons managed to keep their livelihoods and some of their wines at a time when the outcome of the war was very much in doubt.
There is a decidedly pro-French slant to the stories, most of the Germans are made to look like bumbling Colonel Klinks and the French are mostly portrayed as patriotic tools of or members of the Resistance, cleverly hobbling German designs at every turn. To be fair, some Germans are singled out as "righteous gentiles", but these are never Mein Kampf-believing Nazis.
What I like is what I learned about the wine business. There are all sorts of little tidbits about how winemakers can adulterate wine, mislabel wine, and generally fool the general wine-consuming public, not to mention the Wehrmacht. But the book is also filled with tales of winemaking as a craft and a labor of love.
The climax of the book is foreshadowed in the beginning, when French troops were racing to be first to Hitler's Eagles Nest to get a crack at repatriating the fine wines they knew were there.
American readers who were there might well be annoyed by the feeling that the French High Command thought more about rescuing the wine than they did about helping to finish off the Nazis.
That aside, if you love wine as well as stories of good guys outsmarting the bad, then you should enjoy Wine and War.
Check it out at your local library... July 18, 2002
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
A light, easy read. Not much depth or breadth. Buy it used or check it out at the library. You'll finish reading it in two evenings.
 Delightfully palatable July 12, 2002
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
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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