Description

HISTORY

Vin Mariani (French: Mariani wine) was a tonic and patent medicine created about 1863 by Angelo Mariani, a French chemist from the island of Corsica who became intrigued with coca and its economic potential after reading Paolo Mantegazza’s paper on coca's effects. In 1863 Mariani started marketing a coca wine called Vin Tonique Mariani (à la Coca du Pérou) which was made from Bordeaux wine and coca leaves.

The ethanol in the wine acted as a solvent and extracted the cocaine from the coca leaves, altering the drink's effect. It originally contained 6 mg 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.

Modern developments[

Angelo Mariani failed to pass his cocawine production secrets down to subsequent Mariani family generations. However, Christophe Mariani, a possible descendant of Angelo Mariani, relaunched the product in 2014. Christophe Mariani subsequently met the Bolivian president, Evo Morales, in Rome to discuss the commercialisation of Mariani cocawine in Bolivia.