Claret: what fighting men drink!

Anything but Port, this includes all wines other than fortified wines (which have their own section) even if they call themselves Port. There is a search facility for this part of the forum.
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Anything but Port, this includes all non-Port fortified wines even if they call themselves Port. There is a search facility for this part of the forum.
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DRT
Fonseca 1966
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Claret: what fighting men drink!

Post by DRT »

I am currently reading a small book, "Through the Wine List", by A. E. Manning Foster, publshed in 1924, which says:
During the war the French Government gave each poilu a daily ration of claret. The total army consumption exceeded two million bottles each day.
That's a lot of wine!
"The first duty of Port is to be red"
Ernest H. Cockburn
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JacobH
Quinta do Vesuvio 1994
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Re: Claret: what fighting men drink!

Post by JacobH »

DRT wrote:I am currently reading a small book, "Through the Wine List", by A. E. Manning Foster, publshed in 1924, which says:
During the war the French Government gave each poilu a daily ration of claret. The total army consumption exceeded two million bottles each day.
That's a lot of wine!
Of course the tragedy is, looking at the first vague figures of French mobilisation I came across, it doesn’t look like they got much more than a glass each...
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DRT
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Location: Chesterfield, UK
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Re: Claret: what fighting men drink!

Post by DRT »

JacobH wrote:
DRT wrote:I am currently reading a small book, "Through the Wine List", by A. E. Manning Foster, publshed in 1924, which says:
During the war the French Government gave each poilu a daily ration of claret. The total army consumption exceeded two million bottles each day.
That's a lot of wine!
Of course the tragedy is, looking at the first vague figures of French mobilisation I came across, it doesn’t look like they got much more than a glass each...
I don't think that was the real tragedy, but with a 75% casualty rate there was probably more to go around than you have assumed.
"The first duty of Port is to be red"
Ernest H. Cockburn
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