Red wine with a twist of coca

"After much research, discussion and visiting with vintners from Europe and Latin America, it has been decided that our wines will come from and be produced in Peru," says John Martínez, Vice President - sales and marketing for the company.

Until recently, Peruvian wine exports were very limited. This is because Peruvian wine production has traditionally been quite low when compared to other more commercially developed South American countries, such as Chile and Argentina.

Peru's micro wine production has actually played to their favour though, by allowing them the time to experiment with different blends and wine making techniques without getting a reputation for low quality wines. Instead, Peruvian wine exports have arrived on the market as a seeming newcomer with surprisingly high quality. In fact, you could be forgiven for not even knowing that Peru has a wine industry.

The wine industry in Peru has actually been around far longer than most people realise. Wine grapes were first introduced to Peru by the Spanish conquistador Marquis Francisco de Caravantes who visited there during the sixteenth century. Ever since then, Peruvians have been working on perfecting their wine growing techniques. Today, wine makers in province of Ica are producing some very good wines. Peruvians know this well and now the rest of the world is finding out too.

According to historical accountings, coca-based wine is nothing new, per se. In fact the first coca wine 'Vin Mariani (French: Mariani's wine)' was a tonic created circa 1863 by Angelo Mariani, a chemist 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 wine called Vin Mariani which was made from Bordeaux wine treated with coca leaves. The ethanol in the wine acted as a solvent and extracted the coca from the leaves, altering the drink's effect. It originally contained 6mg of coca per fluid ounce of wine, but Vin Mariani which was to be exported contained 7.2mg per ounce in order to compete with the higher coca content of similar drinks in the United States.

"For markets where coca-based products are not permitted, we will be using what is referred to as denatured coca leaves", says Martínez. This process is exactly the same as that of the Coca Cola Company, which uses denatured coca leaves as the capstone ingredient in its Coca-Cola® drink. At present and ironically the Coca Cola Company is the one and only company allowed by the United States to import coca leaves. This, of course, has created much controversy.

"Wine is not the only coca-based product MAL will be producing," says Martínez. We plan on having a line of hair products, soaps and even food products, such as tea and cookies with other products to come later. There is much research and documentation highlighting the therapeutic benefits of coca-based products.

As a benefit to the Peruvian people, especially the coca farmers, Mariani Amalgamated is forming strategic alliances with the current government of Peru to provide humanitarian projects for the indigenous people of that country.

Source: eMediaWire.com