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# Cocaine-laced Mariani wine and the Vatican gold medal from Pope Leo XIII
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/papa-lev-xiii-na-reklamnom-plakate-vina-mariani/
- Published: 2022-04-22T11:37:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T19:08:41.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Archive, Faith, Mores, Pop Culture

Pope Leo XIII on an advertising poster for Vin Mariani. Vin Mariani was nothing other than a wine tonic laced with cocaine, which became extraordinarily popular in the 1870s. According to the recipe, every 100 grams of the drink, made from Bordeaux wine, contained 25 mg of cocaine. The makers recommended drinking three glasses of the cocaine wine a day. The heady beverage was so popular that Pope Leo XIII presented its creator with a Vatican gold medal. Besides Pope Leo XIII, the admirers of the wine with cocaine included Pope Pius X, Queen Victoria, the writers Conan Doyle and Jules Verne, Anatole France and Henrik Ibsen, Alexandre Dumas and Robert Louis Stevenson, until its production was banned during the First World War.

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_6401@22-04-2022_14-37-00.jpg)