Quotes from Don Kladstrup

Monsieur de Villaine at Romanée-Conti, who believed that the winemaker was no more than an intermediary between the soil and the wine and that he should interfere as little as possible.

To be a Frenchman means to fight for your country and its wine," he said.

In my meditations, I find that nothing in life counts more than the happiness we can give others, the good that we can do. This is what we must teach our children, to think of others more than they think of themselves, for it is in this way they will find the most noble satisfaction of all. ~ Maurice Drouhin writing to his wife from prison in 1941

Romanée-Conti, who believed that the winemaker was no more than an intermediary between the soil and the wine and that he should interfere as little as possible.

André Simon, the noted French wine authority, described wine as "a good counselor, a true friend, who neither bores nor irritates us: it does not send us to sleep, nor does it keep us awake . . . it is always ready to cheer, to help, but not to bully us.

When people complained, Vichy, unconvincingly, sought to justify its moves by pointing out that one of the reasons France lost the war was that it had too many bars, one bar for every 80 persons compared with one for every 270 people in Germany.

Wine makes us proud of our past," said one official. "It gives us courage and hope." How else to explain why vignerons in Champagne rushed into their vineyards to harvest the 1915 vintage even as artillery shells were falling all around?

We know our land was here before we came and that it will be here long after we are gone. With our wine, we have survived wars, the Revolution and phylloxera. Each harvest renews promises made in the spring. We live with the continuing cycle. This gives us a taste of eternity.

women, in some parts of France, were barred from the chai, or winery, during harvesttime. Their presence, according to superstition, would turn the wine sour.

As in 1914, the government mounted an extraordinary campaign to help. Winegrowers were granted delays in being called to active duty, military labor detachments were sent to the vineyards and farm horses of small growers were not to be requisitioned until the harvest was completed.

After his assignment to Spain, Pétain had been nicknamed 'the conquistador.' Now there were snide references to 'le con qui se dort' (the asshole who sleeps).

Although the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti would not begin showing a profit until 1959, it was still considered the standard-bearer of great Burgundy, a property that never cut corners or sacrificed quality for the sake of making money.

Bernard was stunned. He knew the Germans had hauled away millions of bottles of wine from his country; he had even seen some of it stolen from the village where he once worked, but a wine cellar on top of a mountain seemed incredible. To be the one who would open it was almost overwhelming.

Freudengässlein, or Lane of Joy.

The French had another name for them: the weinführers. Their job as Beauftragter für den Weinimport Frankreich (agents for importing wines from France) was to buy as much good French wine as possible and send it back to Germany, where it would be resold internationally for a huge profit to help pay for the Third Reich's war.

Hitler's cave was much more than a wine cellar; it was a symbol of cruelty and greed, of Nazi Germany's hunger for wealth and riches.

You had to deal with a situation you did not want. Once you are defeated, you have to do what you are told.

Wine was one of the first signs of civilization to appear in the life of human beings," he said. "It is in the Bible, it is in Homer, it shines through all the pages of history, participating in the destiny of ingenious men. It gives spirit to those who know how to taste it, but it punishes those who drink it without restraint.

After picking, grapes were crushed with bare feet. The must, or grape juice, was then poured into giant vats, followed by a process called pigeage, in which naked workers plunged themselves into the frothy liquid. Holding tightly to chains that had been fastened to overhead beams, the workers would then raise and lower themselves over and over again, stirring the must with their entire bodies so as to aerate the mixture and enhance the fermentation.

Their mutual interest in wine soon led to a close friendship. Many evenings, the two would get together in the great library of Château Lascombes to compare wine notes and great vintages they had drunk. Almost always it was done over a special bottle of wine.

The Hugel story, in many ways, is the story of Alsace. "My grandfather had to change his nationality four times," Johnny's brother André said. Grandfather Emile was born in 1869. He was born French, but two years later, in 1871, Alsace was taken over by Germany after the Franco-Prussian War, and he became German. The end of World War I in 1918 made him French again. In 1940, when Alsace was annexed, he was forced to become German.

For the Rothschilds of Château Lafite-Rothschild in Bordeaux, it meant fleeing the country before the Germans took over their property.

For Henri Jayer of Vosne-Romanée in Burgundy, it meant trading his wine for food so his family would have enough to eat. For Prince Philippe Poniatowski of Vouvray, it meant burying his best wines in his yard so that he would have something to restart business with after the war.

Is there anyone in the civilized world whose eyes do not light up and face does not smile when he hears the word champagne?" mused one champagne lover.14