Guerre 39-45 : Les raisins de la guerre

Guerre 39-45 : Les raisins de la guerre

In the spring of 1945, Nazi Germany is defeated. The allied armies are in Bavaria. French and American troops take Adolf Hitler’s eagle’s nest and raise the flag on this fortress. Among them, Bernard de Nonancourt, a young officer of 25 years old, he comes from Champagne. His mother owns the Laurent-Perrier house.

– They make a discovery, the cellar, of course, the cellar which had been formed by Goering, who was a big consumer and a big champagne lover. There they actually go find thousands of bottles… – Before him shines a treasure: half a million bottles the best wines, by Lafite Rothschild,

Mouton Rothschild, Latour, Yquem, or Romaneé-Conti, in a corner, cognacs and ports, including a good part of the 19th century. Young Nonancourt is impressed by the hundreds of cases of champagne. He knew them, five years earlier, he saw the Germans put them in their trucks, conscientiously plundering the cellars.

He has this loot before his eyes. – They’re going to help themselves a little. There was still quite a bit consumption on site, which would seem normal to me, it was an unimaginable treasure. – That a man like Hitler, who did not appreciate wine, has stored so many wonders in a cellar

Specially dug into the mountain, seems incredible to him. These bottles were looted, and bought by the Germans since the beginning of the occupation in France. How did they do it to plunder this treasure? Did the French let this happen? In July 1939, harvest forecasts are excellent.

The mild weather promises a very good vintage. Then it rains continuously for six weeks. Temperatures are falling, just like the mood of the winegrowers. For the second time, they harvest before processing vineyards on battlefields. In September 1939, Alsace is already at the heart of French military mobilization.

Winegrowers are worried for the upcoming harvest. Like everyone else, they are worried. France declares war on Germany, the Second World War just started. In the Haut-Rhin, in the heart of Alsace, in the village of Riquewihr, the Hugel family works the vineyard for several generations. André is then a young teenager,

He remembers of his first months of war. – In Riquewihr first, we welcome all people who are evacuated 10 kilometers from the Rhine, which means, with Strasbourg, 400,000 people evacuated. The government orchestrates an imposing campaign to help winegrowers. Deadlines are granted to winegrowers called to the flag. Military detachments hurry into the vineyards.

The requisition of draft horses is postponed until the end of the harvest. – The 1939 wine has been returned with the help of Limousin hunters. – “Vintage of 1939, under the sign of courage and the will of our constrained guys to demonstrate once again

That there are no longer irreducible warriors that men keen on freedom and peace, Alsace wine, the wine of the border will be more singing than ever like an anthem and heady as a fervor.” – May 1939 was the year the most miserable of the century. If we had the wealth of sugar,

Currently required, not a liter produced in Alsace would not have the right to be sold as Alsace wine. Which means it was pathetic. – Everywhere in France, this 1939 vintage is the worst of the century. Éliane de Lencquesaing Miailhe comes from a big family Bordeaux winemaker.

The Miailhe own several castles in the Médoc. Éliane is 13 years old during the phoney war. – It was said that the more castles we have, the poorer we are, because a castle meant charges, charges, salaries to be paid, workloads to be provided, unpaid, since we didn’t sell anything

And we shared the poverty of our employees, of our winegrowers. We lived the same, very, very modestly. In 1939, we start by being invaded by the refugees, all our cousins, all the people coming from Verdun, from Paris, all families. – Among these refugees, family friends, Italian Jews, persecuted, they come from Trieste.

They are also wine merchants with whom the Miailhes work, they ask for asylum. – We tell them of course: you are welcome, we will help you. Palmer is a property in which we receive, we organize tastings, but no one is staying, because we have other family properties.

We settle quietly in Palmer, it is three kilometers from Siran, it’s Margot’s, and we will be happy to help you. We have never laughed so much, because it was a bad time to go through, but we were sure of victory. Shortly before the German invasion, Marie-Louise de Nonancourt finished in champagne

The purchase of the Laurent-Perrier house. She has just invested so that her sons, Bernard and Maurice, can start their own business. – Laurent Perrier is an old house which dates from 1812, but after the death of madame, Laurent-Perrier fell into decline and it was doing nothing.

That gave the idea to Marie-Louise de Nonancourt to buy back that house, which no longer corresponded to anything. In 1939, it was said, 12,000 bottles in the mortgaged cellar, sales reduced to practically nothing, seven hectares of vines, seven is still the biggest interest. – There’s not too much,

But you still have to do everything to preserve this small capital. The Germans did not let a good memory from the last war where everything had been looted and destroyed. Marie-Louise de Nonancourt walls up part of his cellar to hide its stock of 12,000 bottles.

– We even say what she had done in the doghouse where she had stored part of its bottles, installed the statue of the Blessed Virgin which was personal to him. – As in Champagne, everywhere we start to protect its bottles and barrels of wine. In Paris, all establishments

Who have stocks of wine prepare for the inevitable. André Terrail, the owner of the most famous of them, the restaurant, La Tour d’Argent, is particularly worried. His son, Claude arrives in Paris on May 12, 1940, just two days after the Germans have crossed the Meuse.

– My father, Claude Terrail, was at the head of the establishment, he was quite patriotic and aviator in Bron where all the French planes were grounded on the ground, bombed by the Germans. He quickly returned to Paris, he confided in the butler,

They went down to the cellar and he took the time to put aside, in the deepest part from the cellar, the most prestigious bottles. – His cellar represents a life’s work. She was, in a way, his soul. André Terrail had devoted years

To choose the wines from this cellar having more than 100,000 bottles, some of which went back in the 19th century. The bankers, stars and aristocrats from around the world, came to his Parisian restaurant taste the duck with blood and its exceptional wines, like that of 1867.

– It’s true that we were able to preserve, especially the most beautiful bottles. All the magnificent fines, English coffee, magnums of port, the Return from the Indies, who left by boat and returned to France, remained in our collections. Dad said he didn’t save France, but save his wines.

In Beaune, in Burgundy, we fear looting in the event of a German victory. Maurice Drouhin of the Drouhin house to tens of thousands bottles in stock, undoubtedly one of the most beautiful cellars among the great merchants of Burgundy. His cellar is a real labyrinth galleries,

Some of which were dug in the 13th century. His son, Robert, was then eight years old. – When Germany invades France, in Beaune, etc., we feared looting. This was only the case in the cellars who were not busy by the inhabitants. My father was obviously very annoyed.

He had the idea of ​​walling part of the cellars behind which were the most important wines in the Domaine’s wines of Romanée-Conti. We are at the location where the cellar was walled up, right here was a wall hastily erected in 1940. I remember besides construction,

Because for us it was fun, and we were responsible for supposedly make her up with dust, cobwebs, etc. This wall remained and fulfilled its effect, although the Germans are not really descended into the cellars when they arrived in Beaune. – Lots of houses thus wall up their cellar,

But in euphoria which follows their victory, the Germans plunder the estates who did not take precautions, then the occupants settle down, requisitioning houses, then it’s the turn vineyards like in Bordeaux. – Of course, so happy to occupy all the castles. They requisition everything, either for the staffs, or for the troop.

In Palmer, the requisition order and Bourg the next day. – Boredom at Château Palmer, it’s just the good bottles are safe, but not the Jewish friends of the family. – We go up to Palmer, a wall, a brick wall between the castle kitchen and waste,

Bringing back as much dust as possible to get dirty and prove well that it had always been there. Then we glue all our Jewish friends behind this wall and telling the children not to make any noise. I had the mission to carry food daily,

From Siran on a bicycle, passing in front of the Germans, who stood guard over Palmer and who told me: “Hello miss.”. I said, “Hello.” In my basket, which I covered with leeks, flowers or anything, there was food for these families. This is how months passed. – Meanwhile, the Miailhe have false papers made.

We must act quickly, save our friends cohabiting in secret with the Germans. – In October, during the harvest, we saw dad driving a car, my uncle to the other, leave with all the Jews in the car, false papers, falseadvises, knowing well that they would have checkpoints

All along the Landes road and the Atlantic zone. I will remember this evening of Siran, seeing the headlights go into the night, and we said we’ll never see them again, since they will be stopped at a checkpoint. The papers were particularly well done. They arrived as far as Bayonne,

They took the last boat towards Argentina. – French wine and champagne are the symbols of this lightning victory. They become a prize of war and despite the precautions taken, in the vineyards, Germans like confusion to plunder certain areas. – Hitler did not drink alcohol

Or very little in any case, on the other hand, there was a man absolutely essential in the Nazi administrative machine who was Hermann Goering, who, indeed, was truly obsessed by Bordeaux wines, for Médoc wines and even more precisely for the Rothschild Sheep. He’s going to have this obsession

To have these great Bordeaux wines in his cellar, it doesn’t matter if it happens by pure and simple looting. – There is looting difficult to quantify, but a certain number prestigious castles who belonged to Jewish families will be the object pillaging by the Germans. – The Germans are also aiming

Prestigious properties of the Médoc. Two castles attract their attention: Langoa and Léoville-Barton, two premier grands crus. Ronald Barton owner, left France for Great Britain upon the news of the armistice. – My great-uncle wanted to join the free French and he took the last boat who left Bordeaux for London.

He became a liaison officer for the free French. Ronald Barton barely joined England that the Germans retrieve properties of this Anglo-Irish family present in Bordeaux since the 17th century. – To start, it seems to me that the SS had arrived in the castle. They had taken a little possession, drink wine, etc.

There was a short time where there was no one in the castle, because the SS left, and the regular army was to arrive. The regular army, he was a commander which was, we think, in wine in Germany, and he said that here, they make good wine, so we lock everything.

All the work to wall up part of the cellar and bury another part of the wines in the pigsty wasn’t very useful in the end. This commander who arrived, he was told that in any case, it’s an Irish property, that they were neutral, that he did not have the right to do anything.

– How difficult it is for the Germans to know precisely whether this family is truly 100% Irish, the maneuver bears fruit. The two castles are requisitioned by the army, the confiscation of the wine is canceled, and the bottles are saved. In occupied Paris, German authorities demand the reopening of large establishments

To taste the great French wines. At the Silver Tower, the bottles are well hidden. In the absence of looting, these new authorities want fine wines always available at the restaurant. – My father, like everyone else in France was waiting, had decided to close the Tower and had said a bit of a joke,

That he would never reopen the Tower. It was unacceptable, this situation, obviously. The Germans told him as in all large hotels: “Mr. Terrail, there’s not much to worry about. If you do not want open the restaurant, Berlin will send a team.” My father, quite intelligently, like other people in France,

It was a pretty troubled time, reopened the restaurant. – Certain establishments made them dream: the Silver Tower, the Meurice, the San Regis, Maxim’s. These were the establishments and for them, suddenly it was theirs. The Germans felt at home. Yes, the Silver Tower was part of this circuit, I guess, what they dreamed of.

– The capital becomes the playground of all pleasures strong men of the new Europe. The Paris of all fantasies becomes accessible, it becomes the city of permissions for those returning from the fronts. We spend there his pay without counting, in wine and champagne, women and restaurants. Tower of money, directed by Claude Terrail

Receives the most important of them. He takes advantage of this proximity to gather information with the French secret services in London. – All German officers are one day came to the Silver Tower. My father told me that he had left with Goering, who invited him to visit Normandy,

And my father could not refuse, which allowed him to see many things, that in my opinion, the Germans did not foresee or would have preferred that he not see. – Claude Terrail thus assists, alongside Goering, fortification works from the French coast by the German army. In the occupied vineyards,

The German authorities will find a way to control their troops, who not only plunder the French, but also the requisitioned goods which are intended for the Reich. Now the shapes will be respected. – Wine is a product completely targeted by the Germans, targeted for many reasons, for civilians first of all,

To supply the Germans during the war and increase the war effort mainly on occupied countries, and then also to supply, supply the German troops. It is a product which is designated by the Germans at the beginning of war as strategic. – Hermann Goering begins by brutally devaluing the franc.

The Marc coast is tripled compared to pre-war prices. The Germans can pay. In Alsace which is completely attached to the Reich, everyone rushes on French products, particularly on the wine of this region. – They were able to buy everything they wanted, because the stores were full. Everything was available, we didn’t lack anything.

The wine flowed freely, the wine cost them almost nothing, schnapps, the same, cognac, etc., they could buy it, which means that there was no harm alcoholism problems because in Germany, the wine was much rarer and more expensive than us. – Most French people

Think that the armistice signed by Marshal Pétain is the solution. Wine producers and traders are enthusiastic. They know Pétain owner from a small vineyard on the Côte d’Azur. They take to ally the hero who had written, during the World War One, odes to the national drink. Pétain’s listeners,

There is the family of Éliane Miailhe. – It is not him who had lost the war, and we, we admired the fact that he devoted himself to take on ambiguous responsibilities in such a situation. Our French families were very divided, between those who, very quickly,

Have said that it is not sustainable to follow the marshal and others who said: Work, Family, Homeland. We agree, because if we lost the war, is that our country had not worked. We pay the weakness of France, lack of vision, an absence of realism, the Popular Front of 1936

And we were very strict for losing this war in these conditions. We had the impression of having been very poorly governed. When the marshal arrived, we said, finally someone of quality. – Long live the marshal, long live France, long live… – Robert-Jean de Vogue is a Champagne aristocrat.

He is the shareholder and director of Moët et Chandon. His son Ghislain remembers family enthusiasm for the marshal. – It gave back a backbone to the country, with values traditionally accepted by the people: Work, Family, Homeland. – A new form of economic warfare starts with wine and champagne.

Marshal Pétain believes that by collaborating honestly with the Germans, he will obtain calm from the occupation. He is seriously mistaken. The lust of the Nazis targets in particular all wine stocks. They represent a financial value, but also sophistication and the power of the country. The route of the demarcation line brings down most

Of the best vineyards in occupied area. – The route of the demarcation line took a while to be fixed. The presence of the Bordeaux vineyard, as well as the presence of the Landes forest, was clearly in the discussions and, if it is integrated into an occupied zone,

It is a voluntary act from the occupants. There have been situations truly aberrant where farms or wine castles could thus see their fields, their vineyards, cut in two very arbitrarily. – Beaune and a large part from the best Burgundy vineyard are thus found in the German zone.

These great wines under cover, Maurice Drouhin, with other winegrowers, set up an escape network. They take advantage of their notion of the vineyard to pass into the free zone the first prisoners escapees from German camps. – In the evening, for dinner, We saw men arriving, generally.

I had never heard of it, he said : “It’s the cousin, you don’t know him, he comes to see us, He came to dinner with us.” In fact, I found out later, he was just a prisoner of war who was trying to escape, Beaune is a few kilometers away

Of the dividing line which was abolished in 1942. It is obvious that Maurice Drouhin was part of the sector looking to help these prisoners of war. – In this area, the Germans know there is treasure who sleeps in wine cellars and French champagne. – German authorities arrive in Champagne.

This arrival is truly premeditated. It’s to take control on the stock of champagne bottles. German authorities say it clearly, for them, it is a prize of war. This stock at the time is of the order 140 million bottles, it is enormous. The production of Champagne wine requires aging in bottle, in cellar.

When we sell a bottle, you need three or four in stock. – Michel Tribaut is the manager of the Lanson house, one of the most important of Champagne. His son, Jean, who is ten years old at the start of the occupation, remembers his first contact with the German army.

– The Germans arrived there immediately the invasion in Champagne. They came to a place, like Pol Roger, Lanson, Moët, then charged champagne trucks. They didn’t ask for anything, they paid with their penny, even though it was worthless, but they paid. – The German regime quickly understands the glory

And the profitability it can make stock of Champagne bottles. You have to buy the greatest wines, but to detect the best, the commandment wants those who know wine, but also the producers. Reich economists turn towards German traders, creating a nicknamed body “Wine merchants in uniform”.

The French call them by another name, the Führers wines. Their job is to buy as much great wines as possible to ship them to Germany, to be quickly resold on the international market with a big profit, helping to finance the military campaigns of the Reich.

They also buy the worst which are distributed to the troop. For Champagne, it’s Otto Klebbich who becomes the Führer of this vineyard. – Otto Klebbich is a former agent from a great Champagne house who has very precise knowledge stocks of Champagne and operation of the Champagne profession.

He’s someone we can hard to fool. – Klebbich was a German merchant who had interests in a matter of zekt, German sparkling wine. His appointment like wine fuhrer in champagne was not innocent from the Germans. Klebbich knew the business. – He was very Francophile, I can guarantee that to you.

He was a man, I was going to say, intelligent, very well mannered. – The Champenois are completely peaceful by the arrival of the German manager responsible for supplies to the Reich. Otto Klebbich may well be very close to the Nazi power, he was born in France.

Champagne is then divided into a multitude of producers, we must therefore unite to resist German demands. – We had to intervene between the Champenois and the German authorities. A contact person was needed, and this one was named very quickly in September 1940 by a letter from the Vichy government

Who designated Robert-Jean de Vogüé like the interlocutor German authorities. – Upon arrival, Otto Klebbich is trapped. The 1940 harvest was a disaster. He is under pressure from Berlin, who wants shots ever more important on the stocks of Champagne houses. The demands of the Germans are becoming more and more pressing.

Some weeks, Otto Klebbich demands the sending half a million bottles. Economic Resistance is organizing. Robert-Jean de Vogüé, the director of Moët & Chandon reacts. On April 13, 1941, he invites all producers to unite against the occupier. A law requested by the Champenois was finally promulgated by Pétain.

She founded the Interprofessional Committee of Champagne Wine, the CIVC. This is the first act massive resistance from Champagne to German requirements, and Otto Klebbich sees this initiative with a very bad eye. – The CIVC wanted to negotiate the amount of withdrawals, the volume of these samples, distribute these withdrawals between all operators,

That the Germans do not decide themselves where they are going to collect, and then, it was also to negotiate a price, and a price, if possible, which is as close as possible production costs, therefore extremely difficult relationships, very tense. – Fine negotiator, Robert-Jean de Vogüé see during the week its German partners

For high-tension meetings. – His role was still quite difficult, because he had to please Klebbich and he also had to accept by his colleagues part of what Klebbich wanted, because he always wanted more and my father tried to give ever less. The Champenois will do everything to reduce these requisitions.

Sometimes they also use trickery. They have stocks of bad champagne which they are trying to sell to the Germans. – It is quite obvious that the Champenois partly provided bottles which were not necessarily of the best quality, but Otto Klebbich who was a fine taster, tasted the bottles and sometimes refused,

With much force and violence, bottles that were offered to him in the context of these levies. – Jean Tribaut is the witness of this form of resistance that all producers implemented in the region. – We had half bottles change, imperial boxes, same label, stamped in red, sideways reserved, she had remarks.

Good grapes were reserved for France, their regular customer, then the last juices, they put sugar water in it to foam. It was sold with brands. Everyone was deploying to give them nightingales. They were happy, it farted, it foamed, it was sugar water that frothed.

– Bordeaux wines produced on the largest vineyard in the world are also strategic for the Germans. Bordeaux producers and traders are well aware of this. The appointment of the future wine Führer will have a significant impact on their economy. – This occupation is perceived funny by wine players, because Germany, a crucial point,

Was in business Bordeaux wines. They didn’t know, somehow, what foot to dance on. Did they deal with customers Bordeaux wines? Did they have business to the occupant? For me the occupant was smart this side, because they played on the commercial suite with Bordeaux wines, playing on the breakup

Imposed by the occupation and the signing of the armistice regime. – Purchases made in Bordeaux are entrusted by the administration of the Reich to a man, his name is Heinz Bömers. He runs a large business importing wine into Germany. Bömers is one of the largest specialists in this vineyard

And undoubtedly the biggest customer Bordeaux wines in Europe. – He supervised and oversaw a network about ten buyers Germans installed on large vineyards especially quality vineyards. Things are clear, he was called up in May 1940 by the Reich Ministry of Agriculture to be this German manager wine purchases in France,

It is because he knew perfectly the local economic fabric and he knew Bordeaux wines. – The German authorities are an error of judgment. The wine führers are not only wine merchants and experts who speak French fluently, they are also Francophiles. They are friends with many Bordeaux producers and traders.

These friendly relations sometimes go back to several generations. In Bordeaux, Heinz Bömers is at home. Before the Great War, his family had owned from Château Smith Haut Lafitte. In the war den, being an importer, he had kept close ties with France. Bömers arrives just after the armistice.

For the moment, his Bordeaux friends are wary of him. He was a close friend and a client of the father of Eliane for a long time. – The Germans were major pre-war clients. Our markets were in Bremen and Hamburg, in two wine houses which were called: the Segnitz and the Bömer.

Mr Bömers and Mr Segnitz came to see us, as usual at my father’s office to say: “Edouard we will resume our relations, and we will buy our wines correctly. I have orders.” My father, frozen, said to him: “My colonel,” he was in a colonel’s uniform, “you are occupiers.”

“Our relations will be strictly relationships that you will impose on us.” He was a little surprised of the cold response from a lifelong friend. My father told him: “If you want to come see us at home privately, in civilian clothes, we will find lifelong friendly relations, but we won’t talk about business.

In business, you represent the German army, and we will transact business between occupants and occupied.” – Mr. Segnitz that Éliane speaks of, is none other than the wine Führer, named in Burgundy by the Reich to buy wines from this vineyard. Adolf Segnitz, director of the company bearing his name

Is representative for Germany of the famous Romanée-Conti. There too, this man arrives on familiar ground. – He knew French wines well, In any case, he knew well Burgundy wines. It’s a man which was commissioned by the Reich to be the official buyer, but he did his job well as an officer,

At the same time, as a man. After all, he didn’t have no hatred for the French. Maybe he thought also that the war would end, that one day he would take back commercial relationships. For all these reasons, he managed his function correctly. He bought wines, he paid them as far as I know.

I don’t know if the best wines of Burgundy were offered to him. He probably wasn’t fooled. – The first gesture of Wine Führer Segnitz is to summon the producers and traders in its offices, at the La Poste de Beaune hotel to reassure them and reiterate his friendship to them.

They wanted to show that he took their interests to heart, but after the war, he also hoped to trade with them. – All types of wines are of interest to the Reich delegate. In reality, he buys cheap wines, consumer wines for the German people and their troops. These are Burgundy wines

And also outside Burgundy, because the Burgundian merchants have activities which are very present in the Côte du Rhône, in the south of France, in the unoccupied part of France, including French Algeria, one of the first providers of wine for Germany at that time. Common wines, that’s a certainty,

And then a lot of luxury wines, because these wines are very sought after to speculate in periods which are periods of uncertainty. All wine merchants are delighted with his arrival. Segnitz is not only an envoy from the Reich and the chancellery, he’s a friend, he’s a confidant, sometimes, for many traders,

And it is a precious help, because Segnitz is the man who can unravel dangerous situations locally. – Maurice Drouhin’s contacts with Segnitz will also quickly come in handy. In the summer of 1941, he is arrested by the Germans. They suspect him of doing intelligence for the enemies of the Reich.

Maurice Drouhin is a close friend of American General Douglas MacArthur became the head of the armed forces Americans in the Pacific. They had fought together during the First World War. – He spent seven months, It’s not nothing, at Fresnes prison, next to Paris. The first weeks or the first months,

It was the month of October, November, to the extent that it could correspond with the family, with his wife, he could give some instructions. For the vines, for the harvest, who were going to introduce themselves, he also gave advice on economic levels. During the war period,

We have no interest in developing trade considerably. He didn’t want to be with the Germans, it couldn’t be than with French people. He had wines in the cellar very high quality and he loved keep as much as possible. – Despite these letters showing his will

Not to give in its good wines to the Germans, they find nothing to reproach him for on his contacts with MacArthur. The interventions of his family, of his lawyers and the support he has from Adolf Segnitz allow his release in the spring of 1942. – Maurice Drouhin the vice-president of the administrative commission

Hospices of Beaune, barely released from prison in 1942, receives a letter from the prefect inciting the commission very keenly to give a gift to Marshal Pétain. They couldn’t do otherwise. – In Bourgogne, as in the rest of France, we adore the marshal and its collaboration policy. He arouses such reverence

That the union of Burgundy producers offers him 66 cases of wine, taking care to slip in some 1856s, the year of his birth. Maurice Drouhin must urgently bring together the assembly of the hospices of Beaune to meet the requirements French authorities and offer vines from the marshal’s hospices.

They choose a very popular plot from a vineyard overlooking Beaune. – We are going to detach a portion hospices of Beaune, this little land which is behind me, which is called the Teeuros, and precisely the vintage of the Ladies Hospitallers, and this is the one which was offered in May 1942.

It becomes closed to Marshal Pétain. There is a pride in Beaune, I would say, local elites. For two years, this closed, the harvest is done by the hospices of Beaune. They are the ones who have to work at these harvests. We send bottles every month to Marshal Pétain.

He receives his case of wine at the Hôtel du Parc. – A vineyard offered to Pétain, while German desires for wine continue to increase. There is a general shortage of wine. Wine production keeps falling. Before the war, the vineyard was already in poor condition. In 1940, the fall was 30%.

In 1942, volumes reached barely those from before the war. Winegrowers can no longer keep up. They lack everything to work the vineyard. – During the war Burgundy production was extremely limited, on the one hand for technical reasons: lack of personnel to cultivate properly, lack of treatment products

To fight against diseases, especially copper sulfate. – To answer to German requisitions, the Vichy government launches a vast campaign to recover metals, to make sulfate which serves to protect the vines and thus attempt to increase wine production. – Provide it yourself raw material to factories who will make this winter copper sulfate

And lead arsenate. For economic recovery, to ensure the supply of France, sell your non-ferrous metals to the State. – Lack of copper sulfate and weather conditions harm all small producers. Jean Ghio is a teenager. He remembers the worries met by his father, a wine worker,

For the large estates of Meursault south of Beaune. The few acres of vines that he owns, are no longer enough to make ends meet. – My father, in 1941, he didn’t do anything, it froze everything. In 1942, he hailed, we had no more money.

It was necessary to borrow, that’s where we learned about the banks. It worked well, they lent to those who could return the money. My father had nothing at all. We couldn’t have sulfur and then sulfate to treat vines and disease. The grapes were a little stunted,

And then in those years, we didn’t do much either. I helped my father, we got there, and no one died of starvation among us. – In the vineyards, producers are missing also too much labor. Many men are prisoners. However, working in the vineyard requires many seasonal workers for pruning or harvesting.

As a result, women and children are put to use. At the Miailhes, everyone is mobilized. The tanks must be filled. – We, the kids, we worked a lot, because we worked in the vineyard, since all men were prisoners or at war. In children, the little ones were privileged.

They were too small to work the land. Everyone who had between seven and ten years old, they had a good life. Everyone who had between ten years and 17 years had to take responsibility for everything. We loved, because we did it as a group,

And we had the impression that we were saving France. – In Alsace, the situation is a bit special, the region is completely annexed to the Reich. The winegrowers derive certain advantages. In the Hugel family in Riquewihr, we don’t lack anything to work the vineyard. – It’s quite surprising, but throughout the war,

We never missed copper sulfate, we always had the bottles who came from Germany, because there was no factory in Alsace which manufactured bottles. – However, the price to pay is terrible. Impossible to cheat on the quality of the wine whose quantities intended for the Germans. The Nazi apparatus constantly controls the producers.

The whole vineyard is under close surveillance. – My father was a business manager and before, at home, there had never been a union, but during the war, we had the Nazi union, DAF: Deutsche Arbeitsfront, who, theoretically, took care of everything. We had a delegate in the company,

One of the workers was a Nazi union delegate. Throughout the war, we kept silent, we never said what we thought, even to a neighbor, because this neighbor could, by an unfortunate word, revive yourself a little Gestapo surveillance, which was total.

– The Nazi regime, which sorely needed men in arms for the Russian front, goes even further. It mobilizes different classes of age in Alsace. The Hugel family is hit hard. André has two older brothers who go under the flags. Impossible to desert, otherwise the families are sent in concentration camp.

– My brother Georges, born in 1922, left in October 1941 to complete the six months of service of the work of the Reich, That’s how it translates, RAD. That is to say it was military preparation, and my brother went to the Wehrmacht and in March, he had to go to Russia.

– In the vineyards, producers do everything possible with the means on board to find high production and satisfy these German requisitions, for others, occupation is a godsend. Intermediate between wine producers and German buyers are the traders. They are the ones who benefit from the new organization of the wine market,

Monopolized by German buyers. Among these trade professionals, turnover is exploding. – The wine market is a fantastic Eldorado which allows fortunes to grow incommensurate with the pre-war period. We see adventurers swarming, create merchant pharmacies from scratch and sometimes become in a few months, real operational players on the wine market

And build fortunes completely astonishing. – During the war, Joseph Romand is an accountant for a major merchant from Beaune. – Yes, business was going well and it was flowering. Those who worked with the Germans, I didn’t say anything, but they were working. – In this part of occupied Burgundy,

They sniff out business and easy money. Among the merchants of this vineyard, a minority between 15 and 20%, will get rich by doing fabulous deals. They are unscrupulous, ready to do anything to sell to the occupants. – We of course know about Beaune names of personalities who got rich very quickly:

André Boisseau, Henri Leroy, Marius Clerget. – A few kilometers from Beaune, there is the village of Pommard, where we make great white wines. It’s in this village where the Clerget company is located. – It’s a character with a head of a small business house,

On the eve of war, who quickly, with his brothers will get rich quite spectacularly, by going for sales to the delegates of successive Reichs and then from the Nazi pharmacies: the Gestapo, the Wehrmacht. He will be with the samphire to try to expand his business and its success is great quickly.

He is a character who sinks very quickly in political collaborationism the most exacerbated, and who parades in the streets of Pommard with a Wehrmacht uniform to impose his authority among his fellow citizens. – Rare testimony, Gilberte Emotte is the girl from a small producer from Pommard.

His father takes care of the village cooperative. As a teenager, she sees the excesses of collaboration in the Burgundian vineyard. – With Gilles, we knew it, the Germans were at his house. He was with them like a friend, he was a collaborator. He had what he wanted.

There were swastikas at all the windows… I see it again in my head. – Very quickly, these traders empty all available stocks. To continue making money, you absolutely have to find wine, whatever the quality. – We have traders who go on a quest colossal volumes wine outside Burgundy,

More to the south, towards Algeria until 1942, then to the south of France, since Adolf Segnitz, delegate of the Reich, is also delegate for the Côtes-du-Rhône, and for Provence. – Traders benefit from the chaos of war to focus financial arrangements. They allow them to avoid the blockade

And increase their fortune thanks to large-scale tax evasion. – A number of circuits become entangled in Europe, including during the hard years of the war, which allows our traders to sell through sometimes from neutral countries, sometimes tax havens. -I’m thinking of Monaco, and who sells nice quantities of wine outside,

Including belligerent countries opposed to Germany. Monaco is a territory quite particular, busy in reality and neutral at the same time. Occupied by Italy, but neutral country all the same, who has international relations with the USA and UK during the war. All Big Sales are done through Monaco

Which houses a hundred of nominee companies, which are shell companies in reality, which camouflage French trading companies. – In the southwest, Bordeaux merchants are also active. They are in direct competition with the Burgundians. Burgundy is also very sought after. The wine führers there buy a lot of fine wines

For great German personalities, like Goering and astronomical quantities of commonly consumed wines. – There are big traders who will create shell companies. This is the case of the Eschenauer house, with the society of great French wines, who will destin most of its sales for Bömers requests. -Louis Eschenauer, nicknamed the king of Bordeaux,

Is an elderly trader 70 years old in 1940. He has long specialized for export to Germany. Before the war he did business on a large scale with this country. His business is thriving. In Bordeaux, its close ties with the German command allow it to increase his fortune a little more.

– With occupation, quite naturally the company of Louis Eschenauer will continue and intensify its trade with Germany also becoming a sort of privileged intermediary, between Bömers, German traders and French traders. It happened completely naturally and in continuity of what was happening beforehand. During the occupation, not content with being a merchant,

Louis Eschenauer will also play a role in the political world, since he will notably register in the Collaboration group. – Collaborator, Eschenauer is also an extravagant character who loves luxury. In business, he is just as flamboyant showing off his German contacts in occupied Bordeaux. He is notably a cousin with Ernst Kühnemann,

Commander of the port of Bordeaux. – To the point that Louis Eschenauer will be stupid to go for a walk on the racing field, since he had a racing stable, from Bouscat, with Kühnemann in German uniform. My grandmother told him: “Louis, you are losing your mind,

See them at home, if you wish it, but don’t show yourself like that, It will end very badly, it’s ridiculous.” – For major Bordeaux merchants trade with the occupier is a gold mine, the overproduction crisis is far behind. In five years, they emptied the cellars and cellars throughout the region.

The boon is general, including in Alsace or some traders have understood well all the benefit to be gained from the news political and geographical situation. – Wine was a product of speculation. That is to say, all the small wine growers made money, because finally they had found customers,

Whereas before the war, it wasn’t easy. – There were great merchants, notably in Rosheim, where there were some of these traders, including the largest cellar at the time in terms of storage 18,000 hectoliters, was the famous house of the Ruchter brothers. He specialized in import red wine and French white wine.

He had passes at seven, to go to Bordeaux, a lot of burgundy, but also liqueurs, champagne, so these houses also had, through their activity, possibilities to move around in what was France at the time and cross this new border of the annexed Reich which concerned Alsace.

– In this favorable context to the wine trade, Beaune, the great capital of Burgundy wine, decides to celebrate with great fanfare the 500th anniversary of the hospices. Big sales for charity are interrupted since the start of the war. The Germans authorize the demonstration. – In 1943, 500th anniversary hospices of Beaune,

We are going to stage, and it was the political project also from the mayor for, at the same time make your city known. A political project who is to think about this 500th anniversary and do it big pump, with fast and everything. – A wonderful atmosphere.

It happened in the large courtyard of the hospices. There was a big play which took place in the courtyard. I know, because I was among the spectators. It was beautiful, there were all the German pontiffs. There was even Cardinal Suhard, who was cardinal of Paris.

There were all the pontiffs of Beaune, it was really good. – During this 500th ceremony and sale of hospices, many Germans are present, on the other hand, in the sales room, they are in civilian clothes, we don’t see them in uniform, but in the tastings that there is around,

They enter in uniform and they are there, they are very present. – Hospices sell wine to merchants who hurry to resell to the occupant, the institution is above of any suspicion. For months, the sisters have been set up a vast escape network. – We hid British airmen.

We hid people who were fleeing, etc., under false identities. Even the sisters did a mock funeral from a British navigator for him to escape. – Maurice, the father of Robert Drouhin, he will also benefit from it. Since his release from prison, he joined a resistance network, weapons cache, logistics. He is finally denounced.

– Six o’clock in the morning, knock, knock, at the door, it was the Germans: “We come to look for Mr Maurice Drouhin.” “Sorry, he’s not here. He left for Paris last night.” Maurice Drouhin had foreseen the move. The house is above the cellars. By a staircase, he went down into the cellars,

He dressed there. The Germans could have suspected that the cellars overlooked the streets and had surrounded the block of houses, or four streets. What they didn’t know, there was a cellar which opened onto a fifth street by which Maurice Drouhin was able to escape.

He went to take refuge at the hospices of Beaune and with the Hospitaller Sisters, arranged for a room to be reserved for him. Certainly, it saved his life. – In all the vineyards, wine producers entered into resistance: refusal to sell wine to the Germans, escape network, sabotage of wine and champagne.

They are more and more numerous to join the shadow army. Bernard de Nonancourt, one of the sons by Marie-Louise de Nonancourt, the owner of Laurent-Perrier, leaves Champagne to join General de Gaulle in London. He will eventually take Hitler’s eagle’s nest, with General Leclerc. For now, he is trying to leave clandestinely France.

– Bernard de Nonancourt is leaving. He ends up in Grenoble. He was given the name of a priest who, himself, told him to go see Father Pierre Grouès. He goes to the confessional, where they meet, and he tells his journey to Abbot Pierre who told him

To come see him this evening at the presbytery. Abbot Pierre told him that he can guide him on the Malleval maquis, from Vercors, under the pseudonym of little Louis. There, he will live there for a good year, then the maquis will be disintegrated by the Germans. There will be a serious shooting,

But Bernard had left him for two days forward for a mission. – No, far from there, in Épernay, another man entered into resistance: Robert-Jean de Vogüé, the boss of Moët & Chandon and director of the CIVC, opposes more and more violently at the requisitions of Wine Führer Klebbich.

He is also one of the leaders of a resistance network in Champagne. This network makes particularly intelligence. It provides information on troop movements. To achieve this, Robert-Jean de Vogüé use delivery notes bottles to the army. This also allows him to locate factories German weapons hidden in its region.

This information is transmitted in the secret service of Free France. – It started from a network which is called the Éleuthère network that he puts in place. The idea is to build a ready army into battle when the allies arrive.

Unfortunately, they don’t have any weapons, they have nothing and he will be arrested in 1943. – A member of his network broke down in the face of torture and delivered names, and my father never held it against him. He always said to himself that in conditions like these,

We can not know what is his behavior. – Robert-Jean de Vogüé is sentenced to death by a court in Reims under the orders of the Germans. They also require French newspapers to denounce the aid provided by de Vogüé to the resistance. The propaganda shows in particular the discovery of weapons

In crates of Moët & Chandon champagne. The news causes a shock wave throughout Champagne. – Like everyone knew his important role, it set off an alarm in Champagne and people saying to themselves: “We no longer have the interlocutor, So what will the Germans do?

They will demand, without us being able to defend ourselves.” – All of Champagne rises. That is to say that Maurice Flon, who is the CGT delegate, launches a general strike. – Retaliation is very harsh. Associated companies to the strike movement are each reduced to a fine of 600,000 francs

Or a prison sentence 40 days for their directors. Most prefer to pay. Robert-Jean de Vogüé sees his sentence commuted to deportation. – He was still deported what we called Nacht und Nebel, which means night and fog. The people who were locked up at night and fog were not to return.

– Moët & Chandon is beheaded. Its executives are imprisoned or deported. In a few months, occupation guardianships place the Moët & Chandon company under German administration. The man placed at its head is Otto Klebbich, but this confiscation is short-lived. The French and their allies land in France from June 1944.

The Germans installed in the vineyards pack up in haste. In Beaune, just before liberation, French friends of wine führer Adolf Segnitz take it anyway time to thank him. – September 18, 1944, at the time of total collapse and the withdrawal of the army German in France,

François Bouchard, president of the wine merchants union at the head of notables of Beaune, organizes a farewell dinner for Adolf Segnitz. It’s to thank him, in reality, for his good collaboration during the war and good opportunities that he allowed traders and traders. – In Burgundy, during their retirement, the Germans continue to fight.

At the beginning of September, they are near Beaune in the village of Meursault where Jean Ghio’s family lives. – There was a little damage, but in Meursault, the worst, it’s that they came back in the great wines and then crossed them diagonally even in the next country, 50 meters wide.

There wasn’t much left, there were piles of wire, broken stakes, broken vines. I know one who was sad, because my father had a premier cru vineyard, it’s just in this one that they passed. She was devastated, we can say 80%. Because the grapes were already trained, it was the day before the harvest,

Two more weeks, and then it was the harvest. – At the same time, other troops liberate Champagne. At the beginning of September, the Americans enter Épernay. One by one, the vineyards are freed. – We saw an American column who passed at full speed in the panic and we were amazed.

People were throwing bottles who remained who had comments. They were very happy, they didn’t notice that it was marked: reserved. They drank champagne, alcohol, brandy. My mother made friezes. They emptied everything, swallowed everything. The soldiers wore them to put them back into a big experience, buy it then they left like that.

There is a Frenchman who was yelling, because I had no more bottles: “I am French”. – Among these soldiers who liberate Champagne, there is Al Ricciuti, a young jihad Franco-American from Baltimore. Bilingual and translator in the army, he is assigned to the second wave of the landing in Normandy.

He arrives with General Patton’s army in Avenay-Val-D’Or in Champagne in the last days of the month of September. He stays for a few days in this small village. – They are in the village, I think they see the young girls, as they speak French,

They are of course invited to eat, to have a real meal. They camped a few meters away from their house, in a field nearby. After the bivoie, they come to taste a little champagne at the locals’ house, so certainly a little moment of welcome comfort.

They meet the three sisters, they were several friends. They corresponded throughout the war. There is still a nice shot input lightning. – Love at first sight is mutual. Paulette Révolte is the eldest of the three sisters of this family. The Revolts are then only small producers.

They are in this high place Pinot noir from Champagne, just before the war. Al Ricciuti only remains a few days in Champagne, his unit returns to combat in the east of France. At the beginning of December 1944, American troops enter Alsace. At the Hugels, in the Riquewihr region,

The human toll is very heavy. – The seven villages around us… Kaysersberg, Ammerschwihr, Bennwihr, Ostheim, were 100% destroyed, with many civilians killed. – A very heavy human toll and a vineyard which suffered significant damage. – The winter of 1944, 1945 was very cold, there was snow,

Which means that the shells which fell on the frozen ground burst immediately. That is to say, the shards destroyed the vines. The worst were Sherman’s tanks who were walking in the vineyard, who hung iron wires, who pulled kilometers wire behind them. We have had the chance to be freed

By the Americans of the 36th division Texas Infantry, who freed us December 5, 1944. – At the beginning of January 1945, all of Alsace is liberated. In this region completely annexed to the Reich for four years, the release tastes bitter. Several hundred thousand young people forcibly conscripted still missing.

– We were of course delighted, but there was no like in the films we see, Leclerc’s troops who arrive in Paris, people with flowers, etc., no, we were happy, but at that moment, we were separated from my brother and all the other Alsatian soldiers who were in the German army.

You see, the problem is totally different in Alsace. – Unlike Alsace, in the southwest, after having emptied the Bordeaux region of its wine, the Germans withdraw without a fight. The world of wine plays an important role in this peaceful liberation. It is the work of those who were closest to the Germans.

– In Aléria, the mayor of Bordeaux will play, in this respect, an important role, but also Louis Eschenauer. Louis Eschenauer will make contact in mid-August with Ernst Kühnemann, the commander of the port of Bordeaux, to ask him to save the port. – He negotiates himself, he puts all his weight,

Deep down he begs Kühnemann to behave in an intelligent way, telling him it won’t do any good to cause additional victims, It won’t do any good to cause damage. It’s better to leave with honor and everything will go pretty well. – These family ties with German commander Ernst Kühnemann

From the port of Bordeaux, made it possible to negotiate Hitler’s order, who ordered the port to be blown up and to fight until the end. Overall, the Germans leave almost intact behind them the most prestigious production tool wine estate of the world. Apart from the Rothschild estate, which was extensively looted and damaged,

At the Miailhes, we are reorganizing. – I’m not telling you the state in which we found the castles. Everything had to be cleaned. As we had no money, we gave the roller a lick of paint, we plugged the holes and then we restarted properties as best we could.

– Upon release, purification begins in Bordeaux and throughout the Bordeaux vineyards. It is immediate. The resistance fighters attack the symbol, to those who benefited the most: policies and especially the wine merchants. The most famous of them is Louis Eschenauer, said the King of Bordeaux.

– He is very lucky, that of being arrested by the FFI and not by FTP, because everyone who was arrested by FTPs have had much more severe treatment and it was much more difficult. He will be put in prison at Fort du Hâ, in the same cell as Marqué and with Father Bergey,

And he will be tried in court who is chaired by Mr. Lambert de Cesseau which moreover became a fierce resistance fighter after having been a relentless collaborator. These good things being said, he will be very heavily sentenced. – The king of Bordeaux is ultimately released,

Like other wine merchants, he is deprived of his civil rights and placed under house arrest. In 1945 and 1946, economic cleansing attacks illicit profits. The fortunes of the great merchants like Louis Eschenauer are seriously punctured. – It’s almost 1 billion confiscation francs, 1.7 billion fines at the end of 1946.

Between 1945 and 1946, it’s almost 2.7, 3 billion francs which were taken Bordeaux merchants, for their transactions with the German occupiers. This purification was passed over in silence, and still today, we can talk very easily from a failed purification, because the press does not is not echoed during the period.

On the contrary, the press and a number of political parties, notably, communists first will denounce the lack of purification. – Fines and tax adjustments for Bordeaux traders, but nothing for the big traders, Burgundian collaborators. Upon liberation, everyone gets or buy resistance cards. Resistant, they are safe retaliation.

They all also highlight vital economic necessity to rebuild the country in this time of chaos. Result, after the joy of liberation, a screed of lead and silence falls on Burgundy. – There were settling of scores, there were some who sang, automatically like that neither seen nor known. Elsewhere, they are not known.

There are some who have left, of course. – This obviously generates the question of illicit profits which is considerable here, in Burgundy, and especially in Côte-d’Or, but that’s a question fairly quickly evacuated by the courts, which is of a fairly broad benevolence. – We have through the archives some clues about these amounts.

We are talking about hundreds accumulated millions, gold bars, everything is placed across apartments, casino purchases, of private mansions in Paris. Entire domains were formed abroad for certain wine merchants. This is all obviously very opaque. because it mainly passes through through black market channels. – On their side,

The hospices of Beaune are fighting to recover part of their domain, surrendered under pressure to Marshal Pétain during the occupation. – The property of Marshal Pétain are placed under sequestration and the enclosure here is sequestered, like all his possessions. The 1944 harvest took place, but it was returned to the hospices.

The issue is how hospices are going to recover this marshal’s enclosure. There is a fair trial in 1946, which allows this restitution. He loses the name du Clos du marshal Pétain, he returns Cuvée des Dames Hospitalières and, ultimately, part of the wine from the bottles which remained is bought by a merchant

Who doesn’t put them back on the market truly than in the 1990s and 2000s. – The same feeling of unfinished business also prevails in the Champagne vineyards, despite very real resistance. Some collaborators and profiteers have passed between the stitches of the purification net. We mainly attack the symbol. At Reims, justice takes action

To the general manager Pommery champagnes. Marquis Melchior de Polignac is also honorary president of the Collaboration group. He is sentenced to a sentence ten years of national indignity. – When Pommery passed in the Lanson fold via my brothers-in-law Gardinier, we found in the archives

Invitations from the fuhrer Marshal Goering, of this, of that. What are you doing ? You are the head of a house in an occupied country. You were the star, you represented France at the Olympic games under Hitler’s regime, you screw up at the door the marshal? – Marquis Melchior de Polignac

Is finally cleared by post-war French justice. He retires from business, but remains marked from the jump of collaboration with the occupier. The marquis provided political information to the Nazi intelligence service. The last target of purification is the CIVC, the Interprofessional Committee Champagne wine, created under the Vichy government.

The judges responsible for the purification demand its pure and simple dissolution. It won’t happen. Champagne wine specialists recognize the usefulness of this institution. As in other French vineyards, the general climate is calm. It is in this same city of Reims that the Second World War officially ends.

– At the end of the Second World War, because of the martyrdom of Reims, Dwight Eisenhower decided to establish its headquarters in Reims, where he left a very good memory. People tell about him that he was riding a bicycle, he had a deep humanity with the population.

He lived here for almost six months, and it is because of his presence here, that we signed the armistice of the Second World War, the end of the Second World War in Reims, May 7, 1945. – Stalin is furious let this surrender be signed in Reims.

– The Russians, who needed with a more striking signature and that they had fought a lot to Berlin to liberate this city, requested a signature, if I may say, more flamboyant the next day in Berlin. – After the war, the work continues in French vineyards.

The weather of this year 1945 is very special. A wave of sweetness followed by frost, hail and finally heatwave. A priori, 1945 looks like a highly problematic vintage, but the winegrowers have since been convinced that war and wine maintain special relationships. By the grace of the lord,

The vintage is bad when war breaks out and always excellent when the fighting ends. One more time, history proves them right. If 1939 had been one of the worst years of the century, 1945 is one of his best. – The year 1945, great year, it is the year of liberation.

The harvest was not very abundant, there weren’t many grapes, but it also contributes to quality. There was frost which significantly reduced production in some places, and especially hail. All in all, a great year very very limited production. Bottles are rare which still exist. – Power, tannin, the maturity of the grapes, concentration,

The complexity, a very great vintage. Besides, 1945, 1947, 1949 were three vintages after the war, which were very great vintages, no one to buy it. It was a vintage that we had been waiting for since 1929. You can have a quality vintage, but no one to buy it.

Our big market, England, was ruined. Belgium, Holland, let’s not talk about it. Germany, let’s not talk about it either. The 45 did not find a buyer. The market remained blocked in Bordeaux until the 1960s. – Afterwards, Burgundy gradually took off again, even though it was necessary a good ten years

To recover a little. I will add that the vines which had often been replanted after phylloxera around 1885, 1900 were very old, and to replant a vine, it costs money, it takes time, and the economy was not sufficient. There wasn’t enough replanting. It was only from 1960

Just a few vines could be renewed. – In champagne, 1945 is also a good year, but the German seizures emptied cellars and stocks. The occupant leaves a slate behind him. – At the end of the war, the Champagne economy is bloodless, the houses are on the verge of bankruptcy,

The stock that was 140 million bottles because the Germans arrived, went down to approximately 80 million bottles, but this Champagne economy is still alive and ready to restart, but it will take a long time. The approximately 40 million bottles which were sold before the war have not been found that in the 60s,

So it took a long time to regain the level of activity, shipping level which existed before the war. – The war changed things, but it must be said that the great development of champagne intervened after the Second World War, since from 1750 to 1939,

We go from zero bottles to 40 million bottles sold. From 1945 to today, from 40 million to 300 million of bottles for the entire profession. So it’s after the Second World War, that the champagne did its international takeoff on five continents. – The war especially purged the markets, crowded markets,

Saturated before the conflict and who will obviously overturn considerably. Wine becomes a rare and expensive product, which was not the case before the war. – In a way, 1945 is the last great vintage of the 20th century. Overall, the Nazi power succeeded to come out of French cellars nearly 50 million bottles champagne,

Of burgundy and quality burgundy and tens of millions of hectoliters of wine for everyday consumption. The Germans were the occupiers. They put in place a formidable legal plundering machine. They bought using the threat. Some French people were considerably enriched. Among them, few were punished, but overall producers resisted.

They kept most of their great wines. These great wines allowed them to revive their trade after the war. Eight years later, on July 8, 1962, in the capital of champagne, the French surprised to discover German flags floating alongside the French. For the first time since the end of the war,

A French President welcomes a German head of state. – My father, Jean Taittinger, was at the young deputy mayor of Reims, and that it is he who welcomes Chancellor Adenauer and General de Gaulle in Reims to take them to the cathedral see Monsignor François Marty, for this reconciliation that General de Gaulle

And Chancellor Adenauer wanted to be sacred. They were two great Christians, they wanted a real mass which lasted a long time, I remember very well, and they put everything under divine authority. They didn’t want that it stays at their level, because, somewhere, both had experienced war,

They knew what it was and it was very fraternal. – The wines evolve slowly and nobly. They carry within them the promise of a long life. Wine is part of our history, it helps define us, it’s this symbol, this pride, and this wealth that the Nazis tried to steal from the French.

Robert-Jean de Vogüé survives the concentration camp. Very weakened, he finds his family in the spring of 1945. He takes back the reins of Moët & Chandon and the CIVC. Back in the United States, Al Ricciuti fails to find peace. He decides to send a letter to Paulette Révolte, whom he met in Champagne.

Their marriage was celebrated in 1963, in Avenay-Val-d’Or. Al Ricciuti becomes the first American to make champagne. Otto Klebbich, Joseph Segnitz and Heins Bömers, the three buyers appointed by the Nazi regime, all continued to buy post-war French wines for the German market. In Bourgogne, Maurice Drouhin leaves safe and sound

The hospices of Beaune upon release. Just like his son Robert Drouhin, Éliane de Lencquesaing was then inspired by her father, she prioritizes quality. She ruled castles, including Pichon Longueville who was on the verge of bankruptcy, before she takes over the reins. This second classified growth rivals with the best, in finesse and depth.

André Hugel’s two brothers returned safely to Alsace. They are marked for life by their despite-us status. Their father, Jean Hugel, he too had faith in tradition. He hammered his motto to his three sons: ”A well-treated wine is an untreated wine. Today their wine continues to sell to the world.

Dix millions et demi de bouteilles des meilleurs crus français…
Tel est le butin volé par l’occupant allemand entre 1940 et 1944. Sans compter les 2,5 millions d’hectolitres de vin, l’équivalent de 312 millions de bouteilles expédiées chaque année en Allemagne et achetés à vil prix. Au même titre que les musées et les galeries d’art, le vignoble français a été copieusement pillé.
Pourtant, les vignerons et négociants ont résisté et la guerre du vin a bien eu lieu. Ces hommes et ces femmes ont dispensé une ingéniosité à toute épreuve pour sauver une partie de ce trésor national.

Réalisé par : Emmanuel Amara