As the Germans pressed Moët specifically and the producers in general for more and more champagne to fuel and reward their conquests, the champagne producers banded together to form a trade organization to collectively bargain with the Germans. (Don’t forget his name! He’s important.)ĭe Vogüé was well respected man among the champagne producers.
The weinführer for region of Champagne was Otto Klaebisch. At least before the acts of sabotage and subterfuge that would come to characterize the French occupation. They were often from the German wine trade and knew both the French producers and their wines ensuring that the Germans got what they wanted, all the best wine available.
To stop the looting, the Nazi’s appointed a weinführer to each wine region. To add insult to injury, the company had also been ordered to supply the Third Reich with 50,000 bottles of champagne a week, or about one-tenth of all the champagne the Germans were requisitioning.” “The Chandon château on the grounds of Dom Pérignon’s abbey had been burned down and many other buildings belonging to Moët were taken over to house German troops. It was comparable to full scale looting of the sort seen after natural disasters and coups, but in this case it involved some of the most storied vineyards in the world and Moët suffered more than most. In the first weeks of the occupation, more than 2 million bottles of wine were stolen by Germans. He struggled bravely, but unsuccessfully to protect the company from German control and barely made it through the war with his life, only to find himself in a unique position after the war. Below is the story of Count Robert-Jean de Vogüé (“de Vogüé”) who ran Moët during that time. So I thought I’d tell part of that story here to you. There was no mention whatsoever during the tour about what happened at Moët during recent history, during WWII.
What they leave out of the official version though is definitely worth hearing… They will tell you an official version of the history that’s heavy on the details of wine production, but super light on the people and events. If you tour Moët & Chandon’s caves today, as I did during a recent day trip from Paris, you’ll learn a little bit about the famed champagne house’s history.
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