I meant to post this closer to Anzac Day. I’ve been listening to Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History podcast on the First World War – well worth checking out – and it got me thinking about Champagne during that terrible time. Much of the war was raging very nearby – the Battle of The Marne for instance – and with so much of the landscape desolated, and with so many of the young male population being sacrificed on the battlefield, I wondered, did they make any?

Turns out 1914 was a great year for champagne thanks to a long, warm summer so while the menfolk were at the front, which was yet to be fully defined at that point in the war, women, old men and children headed into the vineyard to harvest.

I found an article in the Daily Mail from 2014 talking about how they were auctioning a bottle of 1914 Pol Roger, which was interestingly the Winston Churchill’s favourite bubbles who famously once said:  “Remember, gentlemen, it’s not just France we are fighting for, it’s Champagne!”.

The 1914 vintage was hidden away in the chalk caves not to be opened for another ten years, by which time the war would be over.

The allies pretty much succeeded in keeping Gerry away from their reserves in WW1, but WW2 was a different story. After taking over the place Hitler appointed a Weinfuhrer to each region. It must have been one of the plum jobs in the Wehrmacht, their job was to ensure a constant supply for the Reich. In Champagne, the man appointed for this task was Otto Klaebisch and he was to supply 400,000 bottles a week.

He was so successful at plundering the stocks that by spring 1941 the Champenoise were worried there’d be none left – the 1928 Vintage was in particular demand; like Churchill, they were very keen on the Pol Roger.

The champagne houses rallied together to form Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC) which proved effective in protecting the best wines and still protects the makers today. This article in Decanter  is well worth reading.

Hopefully there won’t be any more Weinfurher in the future.