When the Nazis occupied France, they came for its greatest treasure — its wine. What followed was one of the strangest and most human campaigns of the war: a resistance fought with cobwebs, false walls, and a great deal of nerve.
To the Third Reich, French wine was loot on an industrial scale — a symbol of the civilization it wanted to consume. To French winemakers, it was the soul of their country, and they defended it with a mix of courage and cunning that reads like a caper. It is one of the most gripping of the quarter-turn intersections where wine and history collide.
The weinführers: plunder by the bottle
The looting was systematic. Under Hermann Göring, the Nazis appointed officials nicknamed weinführers to take control of the great regions — Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, and Cognac — and drain their cellars for the German elite and the war effort.[1] In the first weeks of occupation alone, more than two million bottles were carried off, and houses like Moët & Chandon were ordered to hand over some 50,000 bottles of champagne every week.[2] It was pillage with a wine list.
The cellar resistance
The winemakers fought back with wit as much as courage. They bricked up their finest vintages behind fresh false walls, then aged the brickwork with dust and spider webs so it looked untouched for decades.[3] They foisted their worst, flattest bottles on the occupiers while hiding the treasures; they “misread” orders and misdirected shipments — sending champagne to Homburg instead of Hamburg — and sabotaged the trains carrying wine to Germany.[3] Most daringly of all, some hid Jewish refugees and smuggled Resistance members across the Demarcation Line inside wine barrels.[3]
| The looters | “Weinführers” under Göring, region by region[1] |
|---|---|
| First weeks | Over 2 million bottles taken from French cellars[2] |
| Champagne quota | Moët & Chandon ordered to supply ~50,000 bottles a week[2] |
| The defense | False walls, decoy bottles, misdirected shipments, sabotage[3] |
| The bravest act | Hiding refugees and Resistance fighters in wine barrels[3] |
An unlikely mercy
The story has a strange wrinkle. Several of the weinführers were themselves German wine merchants with deep prewar ties to France, and by some accounts they used their positions not only to requisition wine but quietly to protect the industry — including helping to shield the Jewish-owned estates of Mouton-Rothschild and Lafite-Rothschild from outright seizure.[3] Even in the machinery of plunder, a love of wine could complicate a soldier’s orders.
They could not stop the tanks. But they could make sure the Germans drank the plonk and never found the good stuff.
Why the wine mattered
It is easy to ask why anyone would risk their life over bottles of wine. But to the French, the great cellars were not a luxury — they were heritage, memory, and national pride, the accumulated work of generations. To save the wine was to save a piece of France itself. That conviction — that wine is culture, not just commerce — runs right through wine’s place as cultural heritage, and into every serious wine region since.
Related reading: wine as cultural heritage · Prohibition · The Monk in the Vineyard · the Wine History Timeline
Frequently asked questions
Did the Nazis really steal French wine?
Yes, on a huge scale. Officials called weinführers, under Hermann Göring, requisitioned wine from Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, and Cognac — more than two million bottles in the first weeks of occupation, with houses like Moët & Chandon ordered to supply tens of thousands of bottles of champagne a week.
How did French winemakers hide their wine?
With remarkable ingenuity: bricking up their best bottles behind false walls disguised with dust and spider webs, foisting inferior wine on the Germans, misdirecting shipments, sabotaging trains, and even smuggling refugees and Resistance members in wine barrels.
Sources
- “Wine and War: Chasing the weinführers” (Nazi weinführers under Göring requisitioning Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, and Cognac), Jane Anson / Inside Bordeaux; and Wine and War, Don & Petie Kladstrup. janeanson.com
- “How the Nazis Plundered Champagne” (over 2 million bottles taken in the first weeks; Moët & Chandon ordered to supply ~50,000 bottles of champagne a week), Far & Wise / Decanter. farandwise.com
- “The Winemakers and Their Resistance” (false walls aged with cobwebs; decoy bottles; misdirected shipments; sabotage; refugees and Resistance smuggled in barrels; weinführers’ ties to the French trade and protection of the Rothschild estates), History on the Net. historyonthenet.com
Want to read more?
Books we drew on and recommend for going deeper on wine history.
9000 Years of Wine: A World HistoryRod Phillips
Cork DorkBianca Bosker
The World Atlas of WineHugh Johnson & Jancis RobinsonAs an Amazon Associate, Wine History Tours earns from qualifying purchases. This supports our research at no extra cost to you.
