Vin Mariani (French language: Mariani wine) was a coca wine and patent medicine created in the 1860s by Angelo Mariani, a French chemist from the island of Corsica. Mariani became intrigued with coca and its medical and economic potential after reading Paolo Mantegazza's paper on the effects of coca. Between 1863 and 1868
The ethanol in the wine acted as a solvent and extracted the cocaine from the coca leaves. It originally contained 6 milligram of cocaine per fluid ounce of wine (211.2 mg/L), but Vin Mariani that was to be exported contained 7.2 mg per ounce (253.4 mg/L), in order to compete with the higher cocaine content of similar drinks in the United States. Advertisements for Vin Mariani claimed that it would restore health, strength, energy and vitality.
Promotion and testimonials
Mariani marketed Vin Mariani for a number of ailments, touting its ability to increase energy, appetite and mood.
It was promoted as a performance enhancer for creatives and athletes alike, and was endorsed by many notable people of its time.
Mariani solicited testimonials from a broad range of
celebrities, including members of various royal families, politicians, artists, writers and other household names, and reprinted them in newspapers and magazines as advertisements. He claimed to have collected over four thousand such endorsements.
Pope Leo XIII and later Pope Pius X were both Vin Mariani drinkers.
Other notables who endorsed Vin Mariani include Kyrle Bellew, Émile Zola, Victorien Sardou, Henri Rochefort and Charles Gounod, all of whom wrote testimonials that appeared as Vin Mariani advertisements.
Inspiration for Coca-Cola
Vin Mariani was apparently an inspiration for John S. Pemberton's 1885
coca wine drink, Pemberton's French Wine Coca. Pemberton's recipe was very similar to that of Vin Mariani, including the coca leaves. It was differentiated only by the inclusion of the
kola nut, the beverage's source of
caffeine.
Later that year, when
Atlanta and Fulton County, Georgia, passed
prohibition legislation, Pemberton responded by developing a carbonated,
non-alcoholic version of his French Wine Coca. He called the reformulated beverage
Coca-Cola, for its
stimulant ingredients coca leaves and kola nuts.
Modern developments
Angelo Mariani failed to pass his recipe down to subsequent Mariani family generations, so Vin Mariani went out of production after his death. The product was relaunched in 2014 by Christophe Mariani (no relation).
Christophe Mariani subsequently met the Bolivian president, Evo Morales, in Rome to discuss the commercialisation of Mariani cocaine in Bolivia.
Gallery
Mariani pope.jpg|Pope Leo XIII purportedly carried a hipflask of Vin Mariani with him, and awarded a Vatican City gold medal to Angelo Mariani.
Médaille Coca Mariani avers O.Roty.JPG|Vin Mariani medal by Louis-Oscar Roty
Médaille Coca Mariani revers O.Roty.JPG|Medal of Coca Mariani wine
L'académicien français Louis Duchesne (1843-1922) faisant la publicité du Vin Mariani, précurseur du Coca-Cola..jpg|French historian Louis Duchesne and Vin Mariani
See also
-
Cocaethylene, a compound produced by human metabolism from combination of alcohol and cocaine
Further reading
-
Aymon de Lestrange Coca Wine: Angelo Mariani's Miraculous Elixir and the Birth of Modern Advertising Rochester (VT), Park Street Press, 2018
External links
