A history of champagne traces the story of its origins in verdant northern France, a region overcome by Visigoths, barbarians, and other invaders, in an account that identifies such contributors to its development as Louis XIV and Napoleon and traces how champagne evolved through periods of violence[...]

In 1940, France fell to the Nazis and almost immediately the German army began a campaign of pillaging one of the assets the French hold most dear: their wine. Like others in the French Resistance, winemakers mobilized to oppose their occupiers, but the tale of their extraordinary efforts has remain[...]