Wine and war have always been entangled — but nowhere more hauntingly than in Champagne, where an entire community once lived underground among the bottles while the Western Front raged overhead.
Vineyards are rooted, immovable, and often unlucky enough to lie on the roads armies march down. Again and again, war has torn through the wine regions of Europe — and again and again, wine has survived, adapted, and endured. No chapter tells that story better than the First World War in Champagne, one of the most extraordinary of the quarter-turn intersections of wine and history.
The vineyard as battlefield: Champagne, 1914
When war broke out in 1914, Champagne — barely a hundred miles east of Paris — found itself directly on the Western Front, the scene of major battles in 1914 and 1915 and then years of grinding attrition.[1] The cost was staggering: the region lost more than half its population and an estimated 40% of its vineyards, and its capital, Reims, was all but razed — its great cathedral, Notre-Dame de Reims, left 80 to 90 percent destroyed.[2]
A city beneath the cellars
Salvation lay underground. Champagne’s deep chalk cellars — the crayères that had always aged its wine — became shelters from the shells, and a whole way of life moved down into them.[1] Among the millions of resting bottles, the people of Reims and Épernay built an underground city: schools, chapels, hospitals, offices, sleeping quarters, even the town’s administration.[1] And remarkably, the wine kept being made — the slow work of turning it sparkling continued in the cellars, sometimes within earshot of the German lines.[1]
| The front | On the Western Front from 1914; major battles 1914 & 1915[1] |
|---|---|
| The losses | Over half the population and ~40% of the vineyards[2] |
| Reims | Near-razed; the cathedral 80–90% destroyed[2] |
| The crayères | Sheltered bottles and civilians — schools, chapels, hospitals[1] |
| The harvest | Brought in by women and children as the men were at the front[3] |
Women, children, and the harvest
With the men conscripted, the grapes still had to come in — so the famous wartime harvests of Champagne were gathered largely by women and children, often under artillery fire, dashing between the rows and the safety of the cellars.[3] That any wine was made at all in those years is a small miracle; that some of it was very good is a testament to a people who refused to let the vineyards die.
They made sparkling wine in the dark, beneath a battlefield, while their cathedral burned above them. Few things say more about why wine matters.
War and the map of wine
Champagne’s ordeal was extreme, but the pattern is ancient: Rome spread the vine by conquest, the great Bordeaux claret trade rose and fell with Anglo-French wars, and a generation after WWI the Nazis returned to plunder France’s cellars all over again. Wars redraw the map of wine as surely as they redraw the map of nations — and yet the vine, patient and deep-rooted, always seems to grow back.
Related reading: stolen wine of WWII · wine in the medieval era · The Monk in the Vineyard · the Wine History Timeline
Frequently asked questions
What happened to Champagne in World War I?
Champagne lay directly on the Western Front. The region lost more than half its population and about 40% of its vineyards, and Reims — including its cathedral — was largely destroyed. The people sheltered in the chalk crayères, where a whole underground community formed and winemaking continued.
Who harvested the grapes during the war?
With most men conscripted, the wartime harvests were brought in largely by women and children, often working under artillery fire near the front lines.
Sources
- “Champagne in World War I” (Champagne on the Western Front from 1914; the crayères sheltered bottles and civilians — schools, chapels, hospitals underground; winemaking continued near the lines), Union des Maisons de Champagne. maisons-champagne.com
- “Champagne, ‘champagne,’ and World War I” (region lost more than half its population and ~40% of its vineyards; Reims and its cathedral 80–90% destroyed), World War I Centennial; and Wine-Searcher. worldwar1centennial.org
- “Champagne and World War One: the darkest hour” (wartime harvests brought in largely by women and children as the men were conscripted), Decanter. decanter.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
The World Atlas of WineHugh Johnson & Jancis Robinson
The Wine BibleKaren MacNeilAs an Amazon Associate, Wine History Tours earns from qualifying purchases. This supports our research at no extra cost to you.
