|
Loading... Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest…by Donald Kladstrup
LibraryThing recommendationsMember recommendationsLoading...
won't like
will probably not like
will probably like
will like
will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. I quite liked this book. A nice slice of history mixed with lots of things wine. Well researched and arranged nicely. Fascinating, too. (  ) Pool_Boy | May 27, 2009 |  Really good read. ( ) kitchengardenbooks | May 8, 2009 | The Kladstrups toured Europe to gather the stories of World War II from many of the greatest French winemakers and their families. Their short book details their tales of courage and Chardonnay, of pain and Pouilly-Fusse. Nothing is romanticized or omitted. If this book does not make you want to learn more about wine, then nothing will. ( ) NielsenGW | Jul 16, 2008 | (#6 in the 2008 book challenge) When I first read reviews of this, there was an awful lot of gushing about how magnificent it was that the French had doggedly withheld much of their best wines from the Germans during the occupation, often by hiding it in cellars and secret rooms, and as much as I like wine, I couldn't help but note that perhaps people who had the wherewithal to hide stuff from the Germans might have focused their energies on hiding other things as well. My interest was caught enough, though, that I picked this up when I had the chance. I realized even at the time that I was being a bit unfair and snarky, and now I think the reviews were a bit unfair to this book by focusing so much on the wine. This is a collection of personal stories about the French wine makers and their experiences during Vichy, and many of them are simply remarkable, such as Jean Huet's (Clos du Bourg) time as a POW, Bernard de Nonancourt (Laurent-Perrier) joining the Resistance, and the Miailhe family (Pichon-Lalande) indeed harboring Jewish families in a hidden annex. And for wine-lovers, there are still plenty of anecdotes about French wine culture. It's a very patriotic book, from reading it one would get the impression that every man, woman and child in France was actively and cheerfully involved in sabotaging the Reich -- it's a little light on the complexity and ambiguity of the occupied France. Grade: B+ Recommended: This is really a tribute book, it's not too heavy on the social analysis, but even so, it's a frisky read. People who like wine, have visited French wine country, or are interested in WWII or French history would most likely enjoy this as light, inspirational reading. You'll certainly be inspired to seek out some good wine. 1  delphica | Feb 1, 2008 | Title says it all. Based on accounts from the French winery owners and workers involved. Seems they were all in the Resistance. (  ) pmwb | Jul 26, 2006 |  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0767904486, Paperback)Liberty, equality, and fraternity are all well and good, a champion of French culture once remarked. But, he continued, what made France truly superior to its neighbors was the French passion for wine, which "contributed to the French race by giving it wit, gaiety, and good taste, qualities which set it profoundly apart from people who drink a lot of beer."The commentator may have had a point; after all, write Don and Petie Kladstrup, it was a well-known fact that Adolf Hitler did not like wine. Still, their leader's teetotalism notwithstanding, the Germans showed no distaste for French wine when they invaded France in 1940. Indeed, among the first acts of the occupying army was to seize great stores of wine, sending tens of thousands of barrels to the Third Reich and ordering the conversion of thousands of hectares of vineyards into war production. Some French vintners, the Kladstrups write in this enjoyable study, went along with orders. Many others, however, including the heads of distinguished houses like Moët et Chandon, engaged in daring and dangerous acts of resistance wherever they could. Some lied about their yields; others built false walls to hide precious vintages; and still others concocted elaborate ruses, such as sprinkling carpet dust into inferior grades of new wine to give it a musty, distinguished flavor. Not every German was fooled, and some partisans of the grape died for their troubles. But some Germans, at considerable risk to themselves, also looked the other way. The Kladstrups fill their pages with memories of the wine war from both sides of the struggle, stories sometimes somber, sometimes amusing, that commemorate those "whose love of the grape and devotion to a way of life helped them survive and triumph over one of the darkest and most difficult chapters in French history." --Gregory McNamee (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:22 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
Abebooks |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
