Wine And War: The French, The Nazis, And The Ba... May 2026

: Many producers built fake walls to conceal their most precious bottles or buried them underground. The owners of Paris's famed La Tour d'Argent restaurant, for instance, rushed to build a wall to hide 20,000 bottles before the Germans arrived.

For the French, protecting their wine was about defending the very "spirit of France". Winemakers employed various daring and creative tactics to thwart the occupiers: Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Ba...

: Beyond protecting bottles, some vignerons used their vast cellar networks to hide Jewish refugees and smuggle members of the Resistance across the Demarcation Line inside wine barrels. The Moral Complexity: Collaboration : Many producers built fake walls to conceal

: Some figures, like Bordeaux merchant Louis Eschenauer, were convicted and imprisoned after the war for doing extensive business with the enemy. Winemakers employed various daring and creative tactics to

: Nazi officials like Hermann Göring were particularly active in acquiring prestigious collections. After the war, French soldiers famously reclaimed a massive cache of stolen wine from Hitler’s "Eagle's Nest" mountain retreat. Ingenious Acts of Resistance

: The Reich dispatched official German wine merchants, known as weinführers , to every major wine region (such as Burgundy, Bordeaux, and Champagne) to coordinate the massive collection and resale of fine vintages at a profit.