I wasn't looking for some grand new revelations about WWII when I bought this book and I didn't get any. What I did get was an easy-to-read series of inspirational stories and breezy anecdotes about how French vignerons managed to keep their livelihoods and some of their wines at a time when the outcome of the war was very much in doubt.
There is a decidedly pro-French slant to the stories, most of the Germans are made to look like bumbling Colonel Klinks and the French are mostly portrayed as patriotic tools of or members of the Resistance, cleverly hobbling German designs at every turn. To be fair, some Germans are singled out as "righteous gentiles", but these are never Mein Kampf-believing Nazis.
What I like is what I learned about the wine business. There are all sorts of little tidbits about how winemakers can adulterate wine, mislabel wine, and generally fool the general wine-consuming public, not to mention the Wehrmacht. But the book is also filled with tales of winemaking as a craft and a labor of love.
The climax of the book is foreshadowed in the beginning, when French troops were racing to be first to Hitler's Eagles Nest to get a crack at repatriating the fine wines they knew were there.
American readers who were there might well be annoyed by the feeling that the French High Command thought more about rescuing the wine than they did about helping to finish off the Nazis.
That aside, if you love wine as well as stories of good guys outsmarting the bad, then you should enjoy Wine and War.

This is an engrossing, and distinctive observation on one of the many impacts of World War II on both France and Germany. It is not simply a book about French wine, but a broader study of the impact of the German occupation upon French daily life. What is fascinating is how much the Germans coveted French cuisine, and especially wine, and how gluttony inspired the Nazi government's quest to strip the French larder as part of spoils of war. "Wine and War" does indicate what a highly regarded treasure French wine represents in Western culture.

This is a terrific read if you like wine or enjoy history (and is twice the pleasure for those, like me, who appreciate both). It is not a serious, scholarly history of the war, but instead a compilation of various anecdotes -- oral history being put into print. From a historical perspective, what I found the most interesting was the author's indication of how the legacy of the harsh reparations extracted from Germany by France in World War I came back to haunt the French in terms of the German thirst for revenge in the Second World War. There is an element of suspense throughout the book, in terms of the Germans possibly killing the goose that laid the golden eggs (though the reader already knows the outcome). However, the work manages to represent that beyond the greed and thuggery of some Germans, a number maintained a sense of humanity and long range vision regarding a people who would always remain their neighbors.

You won't learn alot about wine reading this book; you will learn more about history. But what you will learn about French wine is what a covetted treasure this has regarded in any of the German-French conflicts, and what a critical part of French culture it represents.

As an American in France, one of my areas of interest is the similarities and differences between our peoples and cultures. And both wine and war certainly set us apart. Everyone realizes wine is a significant part of the French culture, though few understand why. And we Americans are fortunate to have (almost) always been victorious in war. It's very difficult to appreciate each other's points of view on war when the French have been invaded on their home turf so many times. Not us.

So I found this book provided just a bit more insight into both areas. Helped to lift the fog a bit about the French. While you'll learn a little about wine from this book, it doesn't really scratch the surface in that regard, though I doubt it intended to. (If you want to do that, go read the DK guidebook 'French Wines: The Essential Guide to the Wines and Wine Growing Regions of France.) But I thought the Kladstrup's did a good job providing some insights into the role wine played - and still does - in the French culture. This is not so much a book about Paris and city life as the rest of France. It's about an agricultural industry's fight to survive during the suicidal years of Europe in the last century.

Several of the other reviewers have done a good job describing the books contents. I'll just end by saying I would have preferred a more in-depth treatment of the French - German relationships. But given the sensitive nature of talking to the few remaining survivors and families about what still is a certainly painful memory for the French, I think Don and Petie Kladstrup did a good job in producing a pleasant read on a somewhat unique topic. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to the glass of French wine I poured myself while sitting down to write this review. Recommended (both the book and my wine!)