24 • NewsWeekly – Friday, September 10, 2010
NewsWeekly – Albury Wodonga’s locally owned free weekly newspaper
Living now
Wine and war – stories from the conflict Winelovers PERSPECTIVE WITH
t is a trite statement to say that war is a tragedy and that no good comes of it. And other quotations abound, from the poignant “In war there are no unwounded soldiers” – José Narosky to the flippant “Draft beer, not people” – Bob Dylan. Many years ago I read an excellent book by Don and Petie Kladstrup called “Wine and War” (Coronet Books), a story they said was about “the French, the Nazis and France’s greatest treasure”. On rereading the book recently, I was struck with the incongruity that, in amongst the maelstrom of conflict, life went on for the French and their resistance to the Nazis was peppered with humour and eccentric behavior, as well as of course bravery and loss.
Historical connections Although France and Germany have been “at it” for centuries, in the 1930’s the debacle of World War I was still a recent memory. Notwithstanding that, France and Germany enjoyed excellent commercial relations, not the least of which was in the wine trade. Prominent Germans were close friends with the leading wine families in Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne, often to the degree that they were godparents of each other’s children.
Hitler’s grand plan With the onset of war, Hitler was no mug. Although he had an aversion to wine, he recognised immediately its enormous economic value and did not hesitate to set up a program of control and pillaging that would eventually bring the French wine trade to its knees. When Hitler finally suicided in his Berlin bunker, in his retreat at Berchtesgarden (the “Eagle’s Nest”) hundreds of thousands of bottles of premium French wine were discovered (a source of delight to the liberating French troops who stormed the retreat at the war’s end!). To consolidate his grip on the wine trade, Hitler appointed weinfuhrers to each of the key French wine districts, giving them virtual autonomy over the local wine trade and charging them with the responsibility to ensure a constant supply to the Fatherland. Each weinfuhrer negotiated prices with local growers (usually “bargain basement”) and (in theory) supervised the quality of the product being shipped to Germany.
The extent of the pillaging The quantities of wine stolen from the French by the invading forces, and thereafter “siphoned off” to the Wehrmacht, beggars belief in its volume. In 1940, as the Nazis crossed into France from Belgium, one Parisian restaurateur knew the Nazis would enter Paris in short order. Of the 100,000 bottles in his precious cellar, the owner resigned himself to the fact that it was impossible to hide it all. He chose 20,000 of the very best bottles, especially those from the classic 1867 vintage. One month later, an emissary from Fieldmarshal Herman Goering visited the restaurant (which happened to be La Tour d’Argent, one of the most famous restaurants of Paris) and asked to see the cellar, and “especially the bottles from 1867”. Being told that the vintage had all been drunk, the emissary and his troops searched unsuccessfully for the wine in the spacious cellars of the restaurant. Finally they gave up (the wine had been bricked behind a wall), but they did not leave empty handed – all 80,000 remaining bottles of wine were seized. It was a small taste of things to come. Each year during the war, about 320 million bottles were shipped to Germany.
The war in Champagne In the first few weeks of the occupation, nearly two million bottles were seized by Nazi soldiers – the Champagne weinfuhrer (one Otto Klaebisch) was also demanding a half million bottles per week be supplied to Germany. Interestingly, much of this Champagne was destined for the front, undoubtedly to
RUTHLESS: The Nazis gave no quarter to anyone who opposed them. cheer up the otherwise dismal troops (many of whom were freezing their proverbials off in Russia). Still, the supply of Champagne also became an interesting source of intelligence for the Resistance. When a major military step was being taken, the logistics team in Berlin insisted on Champagne being forwarded in advance to that area to “fortify” the new troops. It did not take much math and calculation for the Resistance to work out the number of soldiers involved, and the likely location of the new campaign, and for this information to be passed on to the Allies. In the early days of the war, prior to the Nazi invasion, French troops had a standing allocation of a litre of wine per soldier per day! One can imagine the interesting exchange of gunfire that must have occurred in those early weeks, between what must have been basically “pie-eyed” adversaries! Even in France today, there is lingering bitterness about the Nazi invasion, the damage that was done to the vineyards, and the looting that took place. The close proximity of Champagne to Germany did not help, with shells literally passing over the vines from guns just across the German border. Some years ago, I visited the Chateau (now restored) of the Comtes de Dampierre in Chenay. A genial host, and the quintessential aristocrat that he was, the Comtes showed us the rear garden of his home (saying “zat was zee German lines”) then took us through the home to the front door and pointed across the road (saying “zat was zee French lines”). As one would expect, the Chateau was razed to the ground in the ensuing firefight, but has now been rebuilt as it was.
Birth of the resistance
The tyranny of the weinfuhrer
The prospect that their beloved “jewels” were to be consumed by the Nazis filled wine growers with anger – the Champagne wine houses fought back by gathering their finest vintages and bricking them up in the rambling “crayeres” (tunnels) dug below the cities of Reims and Epernay, to secure them from pillaging. (On one occasion, a Champagne grower had the temerity to do a trade with the local weinfuhrer, exchanging some
Pressed with ever increasing demands for wine of high quality, the weinfuhrers escalated their threats against the local wine trade, and acts of violence and incarceration became more common. That said, many weinfuhrers were decent people, and intelligent enough to understand that the war would inevitably end, so that thereafter it would be nice to be on reasonable terms with the French wine merchants. As I said,
HISTORY: The Champagne countryside was not always as peaceful as it is today.
many of them were already close friends of the French, and thus most tried to see out the war on their “little patch” with the least amount of trouble and inconvenience. On occasions, a weinfuhrer would plead with a local wine merchant, explaining that if some compromise was not reached, there was a strong chance the weinfuhrer in question would be sent to the Russian front and that his replacement may not be nearly as cordial. In those circumstances, the merchant would usually compromise his position and give just enough ground to keep the status quo. The more aggressive and unfriendly weinfuhrers were less gentle in their treatment. On one famous occasion, a wine merchant was (unusually) invited to share a bottle of “bubbly” with the local weinfuhrer. The quality of the wine was so bad (by design, of course!) that the weinfuhrer had “copped an earful” from Berlin, with suggestions of an early posting to a colder climate. Try as he may, the wine merchant could not keep the grimace from his face as he drank the undrinkable “bubbly”. The weinfuhrer then burst into an unexpected fit of anger, and the merchant was dispatched to the cells. Unfortunately, this became an all too regular occurrence, with prominent wine identities being sent to concentration camps, or indeed receiving the death sentence. The pressure was mounting.
So how did it all end? Well, that is a story for another day. I hope that you have enjoyed these anecdotes – this marvellous book confirmed to me that the civility of wine, and of the people who make and drink it, can survive world conflict. Who knows, maybe one day an exchange of views over a bottle of something decent may be all that is needed to avoid the next major war. As Colonel Potter in the television show M*A*S*H once famously said – “Sometimes I think it should be a rule of war that you have to see somebody up close and get to know him before you can shoot him”. Next week: Drinking White Wine – learning and having fun
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PAUL MUNTZ
vintage Champagne for a supply of cement “to do some repairs”. The cement was used to brick up the precious wine!). That done, the Champenois then ensured that their worst cuvees only were shipped to the Nazis. To ensure no mistake, the labels were clearly endorsed with words such as “Reserved for the Wehrmacht” next to the Nazi eagle symbol. All Frenchmen “in the know” knew to avoid these bottles like the plague – they were inferior wines. And just to make sure about quality control, the Resistance had a wonderful habit of visiting railroad sidings in the dead of night, identifying the barrels of wine that were stamped with the Wehrmacht symbol, removing the “bung” (cork stopper) and relieving themselves into the barrel, thus ensuring a final layer of flavour and complexity reserved only for the invader!