Here, a bit late, is a V-E day story.
I must start by saying that I'm at least a generation older than most CCers, so It was my parents, not just Grandparents or G-grandparents, that lived through WWII.
My father often told us stories about the war when we were kids, though they weren't usually about the actual fighting. He fought in the North African desert, and Sicily and Italy and ended up in Greece. He was in Athens on VE day. He often told us of his celebrations that night, which involved cutting in on an officers-only celebration and being embarrassed when the bill came along. But one thing he always said when telling this story was that he remembered the wine they drank, which was the finest wine he'd ever had.
It was a "Maphrodaphne" (which comes from Cyprus, and unlike the resinated wines which he would then otherwise have encountered in Greece, is a very sweet red wine. These days it's usually sold as a dessert wine)
I found a source for Maphrodaphne, and would always make sure I had a bottle to hand when he visited me or vice versa. He was grateful, but would always say "yes, this is nice, but it's not as good as the one I drank back in 1945!"
By an amazing coincidence, just before his 80th birthday, the wine merchants I was using uncovered a small batch of 1943 Maphrodaphne, which could very well have been the vintage he'd drunk on V.E. day. It wasn't particularly dear considering the age, and so I bought him a bottle (they'd only let me have one). He was immensely pleased, more so I think than he's been with just about any other present.
So, his 80th birthday came and went, he visited us a while after and we got some of the relatives together to celebrate. I asked him "how was the wine?" He replied, he hadn't opened it yet - he was waiting for a special occasion...
