# French Foreign Legion launches wine



## Blackadder1916 (18 Jun 2008)

*French Foreign Legion launches wine*
http://www.decanter.com/news/258795.html
Erica Loi   June 16, 2008

The French Foreign Legion is venturing into the wine industry to help raise money to fund its ageing veterans, it announced last week.

The wine, L'Esprit du Corps, will be sold at €7 (£5.50) a bottle on www.legion-boutique.com. The first wines in the range, from the 2007 vintage, are a red and rosé from the Cotes de Provence appellation. 

They are made on a 40ha estate in Puyloubier, Provence, that also currently houses over 100 invalided legionnaires. 

Annual production is rated at around 300,000 bottles. 

According to the Legion, the wines are being sold in a bid to supplement the French government's inadequate pension veterans. 

Money raised from sales will be used to house and care for veterans as well as help them re-adjust to civilian life.




*From battlefield to bottles, French Foreign Legion markets wine*
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jPl2YJT1nM69-Gm0i24yFy-R48PA

PARIS (AFP) — In true combative style, the much storied French Foreign Legion is going into the wine business to raise funds for its ageing veterans.

"This is more than just a wine-tasting," said commander-in-chief General Louis Pichot de Champfleury, launching its wines at a grand ceremony Wednesday evening -- a rare outing for the normally discreet low-profile elite force.

Called "Esprit de Corps" to embody the legionnaire spirit, its 2007 Cotes de Provence red and rose vintages are produced from grapes grown on a property in southern France acquired by the outfit in 1953 to shelter its war-wounded, as well as its elderly former fighters.

"This is about solidarity," 50-something Champfleury told soldiers and defence ministry types gathered in the premises of Paris' military governor.

Established in 1831, the crack 7,700-strong corps was set up as a unit for foreign volunteers, often misfits and miscreants who could change their identities and turn a page on their past by fighting the enemies of France.
Made up of men from some 140 nations, some with only barebones French, the mystique of the adventure-seeking corps was enshrined in Hollywood movies such as "Beau Geste" and "March or Die."

"Solidarity is not a hollow concept for us," Champfleury went on. "The men we recruit often join because they have no other choice, they arrive brutally, they may have faced death, their situation is often delicate."

Integrating recruits with diverse backgrounds and languages into hardened combat units was something that one of history's most romanticised military outfits knew how to do, he said.

But dealing with pensioned-off fighters long cut off from family and friends was another fighting matter, he said.
"When legionnaires are forced to return to civilian life, it can be difficult and when we hear of a legionnaire in distress we fly to their rescue," he said.

With the debt-strapped government on a cost-cutting binge, the French Foreign Legion desperately needed funding for its veterans' homes. The vines moreover offered work cut out for the type of man -- there are practically no women in this outfit -- recruited into the crack unit.

"The legionnaire," according to french-foreign-legion.com, "is first and foremost a man of action, brave in combat and eager for change. He disdains idleness and routine."

"The Legion," it adds, is "a large family. A man who has left behind his past, his social and family background, transfers to the Legion his need of an ideal, his affection equating the Legion with that of a homeland."

At any one time some 100 to 150 elderly homeless landless veterans were in the care of the outfit, said ex-legionnaire Guy Gerard, who spent 25 years fighting in Africa before taking over the vineyards in Puyloubier, near the town of Aubagne.

The men who worked the vines were generally aged between 50 and 70, he said.

As for the wines, available at seven euros a bottle on www.legion-boutique.com, an officer from the Puyloubier property, Lieutenant-Colonel Xavier Lantaires, described them as: "Strong when attacked, solid on the onslaught, full of grapeshot on the frontline."


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## ENGINEERS WIFE (18 Jun 2008)

Although, be careful what you say.  If you don't like it, they will send some covert ops out to kill you dead!!!   ;D


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## X-mo-1979 (19 Jun 2008)

I'm buying a bottle.If it supports soldiers who need it,I'm in.


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## The Bread Guy (27 Jun 2008)

I wouldn't mind ordering a bottle as well - anybody had experience with mail ordering wine into Canada?


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## geo (28 Jun 2008)

If you are ordering wine into Ontario Canada, you may have to go thru the LCBO Tony.
Unfortunately, the Taxman will want his piece of the the proverbial pie.


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## The Bread Guy (28 Jun 2008)

No worries - will e-mail link to LCBO, and share info re:  how MUCH of a bite it'll be, in case others in Ontario may also be interested in ordering their own.

Then again, with some of the wine as cheap as 3.3 Euros ($5.25 Cdn)
http://www.legion-boutique.com/produits_info.php?pID=212&catID=4

the taxman's cut shouldn't be all that outrageous, even if I'm planning on ordering at least 10 bottles (I'm guessing LCBO may not be into individual or 2 bottle loads).  Besides, as X-Mo says, it's for a good cause.

May even serve it to my buds on Remembrance Day during the (becoming) traditional visit to my place during the rounds.....


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## geo (28 Jun 2008)

Cases are by the Dozen....


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## Blackadder1916 (28 Jun 2008)

milnewstbay said:
			
		

> No worries - will e-mail link to LCBO, and share info re:  how MUCH of a bite it'll be, in case others in Ontario may also be interested in ordering their own.
> 
> Then again, with some of the wine as cheap as 3.3 Euros ($5.25 Cdn)
> http://www.legion-boutique.com/produits_info.php?pID=212&catID=4
> ...



Here's the link to LCBO info for private ordering.  You should note the examples for freight costs and the fee for lab testing.


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## The Bread Guy (28 Jun 2008)

Many thanks, Blackadder!

So, doing the approximate math for 24 bottles of the bottom-end red plonk 
http://www.legion-boutique.com/produits_info.php?pID=212&catID=4
(still with the cool Foreign Legion logo on it, though):

24 bottles of wine (2 cases)      $80
Shipping                                  $165
Testing                                   $155

Total                                      $400/24 or *$16.67/bottle*


How about the fancier red mentioned in the articles above?
http://www.legion-boutique.com/produits_info.php?pID=370&catID=4

24 bottles                          $229.44
Shipping                            $165
Testing                              $155

Total                                 $549.44/24 or *$22.90/bottle*

Hmmm, maybe as a Christmas gift to myself, but likely easier to swing in big cities where a lot of folks can go in together on batch orders (and spread the cost of the testing across lotsa bottles).

_- edit to do rough math - _


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## lone bugler (28 Jun 2008)

I'd be happy to buy that, 16-22 per bottle of wine ant bad


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## Blackadder1916 (28 Jun 2008)

> So, doing the approximate math for 24 bottles of the bottom-end red plonk . . .



You also have to consider customs and excise duties, GST and any provincial taxes, LCBO mark-up.  And it is "plonk".  Acceptable plonk, but plonk nonetheless.  The internet sale by the Legion is a new twist but they have been making wine for a long time; previously most of it was consumed by the Legionaires.  I had a glass or two many years ago (an old friend, French officer, served with them).

The process for importing wines or spirits for personal use can be a real pain depending upon your province.  It is a lot easier to bring wine back from an overseas posting as part of F&E (brought back several hundred bottles from CFE) but even then there can be complications depending on jurisdiction.  Though there are not the large numbers of troops repatting from Europe as in the days of Lahr and Baden, you might be able to find someone coming back from a European posting who would purchase a quantity of vin de la Légion as a "gift".  Buying and reselling it to you is most likely illegal.  It was not unknown (many years past) for certain messes to stock their wine cellars by such a method.


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