World War 2, Occupied France and Saving Wine

Having been one of the primary battlegrounds for both World Wars, the French are familiar with the impact of war on their vineyards. In fact, they have explicitly tied war into a marketing French wine - the start of war always marks a poor vintage, and victory a superior one.

The book "Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure," by Don and Petie Kladstrup, details the damage done to the wine industry over five years of occupation, and how the French managed to save their most famous industry from destruction. At the beginning of World War 2, nearly 20% of the French population earned a living from the wine industry, and the Nazis wanted to seize control of the industry and its associated revenue. The Nazis appointed "Weinfuhrers" to manage the most famous production regions, including Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne. Luckily, these were German wine merchants who appreciated the regions' histories and mostly protected them against destruction.

The French winemakers sought to undermine the occupiers, and there are numerous anecdotes about how they tricked the occupiers and the collaborationist Vichy regime. For example, wine producers sold off their worst vintages and hid their best product from the Germans with fake walls, and covered these with cobwebs to age them. As noted, they also received support from the occupiers. Another example of this is how the Vichy regime prevented Nazis from taking over the Jewish-owned Lafite-Rothschild vineyard.

Ultimately, due to both the efforts of the occupied French citizens and to the tempered approach taken by the Nazis out of respect of the French wine industry's future potential, World War 2 had few long-term effects on the French wine industry.

Sources:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/07/16/the-thin-red-line 
http://www.intowine.com/shop/0448-6.html
http://blog.cellarer.com/saving-french-wine-during-wwii/