Blackadder1916
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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."
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."
;D
