The chronic surplus of wine at the start of the 20th century was to be absorbed by the ‘poilus’ of the Great War. This conflict, the first ‘world war’, was exceptionally bloody on all sides (nine million dead, plus 20 million injured). The conflict began on the 3rd August 1914 and, before the end of the month, the viticulteurs of the Midi region had donated 200,000 hectolitres to the soldiers at the Front. At the Front, the army’s wine was served in abundance. It was decried by soldiers for being musty, chemical-tasting, adulterated... As it was coloured purple with aniline, a fuchsia-coloured dye, the soldiers nicknamed the wine le fuchsia (Henri Barbusse refers to this in Le Feu). Nevertheless, it was always eagerly received. The wine consumed helped to boost soldiers’ morale and courage. For Christophe Lucand, “the men had to hold firm. Leaders were haunted by the memory of past defeats, namely that of 1870 and the disasters that had followed it. They were afraid of seeing the Front split apart.” The army’s High Command judged it indispensable: “A man, like a sack, only stands up if he is filled” (André Bridoux, Souvenirs du temps des morts). Le fuchsia was to be ‘the plonk of victory’.