Not a single bottle of wine for the Musketeers, or How Dumas-father deceived us

On July 24, 1802, Alexander Dumas's father, the author of the famous Musketeer trilogy, was born. On his birthday, we want to tell you a little secret…

Dumas ' heroes drink wine all the time. But if you dig deeper, it turns out that the old man was lying to us in his works. For example, in this fragment of the novel "The Three Musketeers"…

"Not me," replied Athos. — I liked Aramis 'Spanish wine so much that I had sixty bottles loaded into our servants' wagon, and this greatly lightened my purse.

What is wrong with this fragment?

Most of you have correctly assessed and identified the place of deception. The action of the novel "The Three Musketeers" takes place in the years 1627-1628. It was during these years that the siege of La Rochelle, commanded by Cardinal Richelieu, took place.

However, in real history, the Englishman Kenelm Digby will produce the first powerful, strong and resistant to transportation bottle only in 1652. But even then it will be a single batch, and the technology will not even be patented. A truly massive wine will meet with a bottle not earlier than the 1690s-1700s. But even then, the innovative packaging will be produced strictly under the order of inns, hotels and inns and will serve exclusively for storing wine bought during the harvest season with a barrel and poured "into its own container"during the year.

Modern collections of "glass seals" from the 1700s‑1720s are one of the rarest and most unusual collections.

At the time of our novel, a bottle is a rarity, slightly smaller than the diamond on d'Artagnan's finger from the first book. A dozen bottles costs about as much as a good racehorse. That is, without taking into account the wine itself, Athos would have to pay the price of five good horses for" sixty bottles".

We all, of course, love the Comte de La Fere, but we remember that he rarely had a larger sum than for "a drink and a snack". Moreover, the conversation takes place after Athos has lost every last penny at dice and won back 100 pistoles, only putting his servant, Grimaud, on the line! Therefore, we could not talk about any 60 bottles in principle.