Kami Kenna oversees sales and marketing for Piscologia, a women-owned and produced brand out of Peru. Follow Kami and Piscologia. You can nerd out all the way be getting certified in Pisco for free.

For simplicity's sake, the following piece will focus on Peruvian Pisco with occasional notes and comparisons drawn to Chile. 

Already feeling a case of TL;DR coming on? Let me read it to you.

First things first

What is Pisco? A grape brandy that can be made in both Peru and Chile. Grape-based brandies can be made anywhere but Pisco is a protected category, much like Cognac, also a grape brandy, which can only come from the Cognac region of France.

Pisco is made like any other spirit, by fermenting an item (grain, fruit, sugarcane, agave, etc.) and then distilling it. In Peru, one or more of the allowed eight grape varietals are fermented by yeasts drinking the grape’s juice, its bi-product being wine. The jump is made from wine to brandy when the wine is boiled and its condensed distilled vapors are trapped, yielding the higher-proof yielded spirit of Pisco. Therefore, when drinking most Piscos, you will get a lot of wine notes. Distillation can take place in a variety of tin and copper stills, but Peru also employs a style of its own called a Falca.

Part of the conversation that is important to have around Pisco, is one that we’re used to having with wine. Depending on what grape(s) are used, where they are raised, and how they are fermented, can significantly impact its flavor. People who are into wine will taste different vintages from the same winery or try multiples of the same style from different wineries or regions to see how things change.

There are 3 styles of Pisco that are made in Peru: 

* Puro: a single grape varietal. This is the most popular way to drink Pisco in Peru. They are made from dryer wines.

* Mosto Verde: made from sweeter wine, thus more of a dessert style.

* Acholado: a blend that may be made from two or more Puros, or two or more Mosto Verdes.

Eight varieties of grapes can be used to make Pisco in Peru. They are classified as aromatic and non-aromatic. In a portion of Kami’s and my conversation that didn’t make the final cut, Kami points out that she thinks of them as aromatic and less aromatic.

* Aromatic: Albilla, Torontel, Italia, and Moscatel

* Less/non-aromatic: Quebranta, Uvina, Mollar, and Negra Criolla

History

Grapes arrived in Peru and Chile via the Spanish, wine being both a part of their daily life and religious ceremony. As grape harvest and wine production ramped up, much of the wine was being shipped back to Spain. To keep it from spoiling during the long journey, it was fortified with a high-proof alcohol (similar to Port, Vermouth, Sherry, Madeira, etc.). This necessitated the need to distill.

But the push to Pisco came, as with many changes, when restrictions and taxes were placed on wine from these territories, because their popularity began to threaten winemakers in Spain. Thus they lobbied the Spanish crown to protect their own interests. The people growing the grapes and making the wine experienced a crash in demand and a glut of supply. To keep the wine they’d already made from growing bad and to have a use for future grapes, Pisco was born.

While there is a romance to tradition, there are also times when it is not practical to hold on to them. A traditional way we may think of small-batch wine being made is by stomping on grapes to crush them. A more technological approach is using a press. On average, a press will yield twice as much juice, helping the vintner and distiller make better money.

Kami was quick to point out when we talked that while it is true that Europeans brought grapes to South America, the local population is the reason the industry flourished since they knew how to cultivate the land. While the equator passing along Peru’s northern border may leave us with tropical notions, the country has dramatically different climates throughout. Peru is home to the world’s second driest desert, and most of the grape production takes place in these drier regions.

Despite both being under Spanish rule for a long time, after independence came, Peru and Bolivia fell into a war with Chile (1879 to 1884) over Chile wanting to tax Bolivia when it sought to bring goods to the coast for export. Chile won this war and sentiments to this day remain strained. Who makes the real form of Pisco, Peru or Chile, is a source of tense discussion.

Diving in

When I pressed Kami for recommendations on where to start or how to go deeper, a suggestion she had was to focus on one grape varietal after you find something you like instead of rushing to explore the pantheon of flavors. There is so much out there that trying two or three of the same style, much like trying two or three pinot noirs, might give you a better idea of the spectrum of flavor contained in each grape.

Think of it like mezcal/tequila. A number of categories are looking to the success of agave as a marker for what is possible. Pisco, like mezcal, is an unaged spirit (except for some in Chile). The craze around mezcal and people being interested in unique vintages is what Pisco hopes to capitalize on as it rolls out unique vintages.

To the cocktail end of things, in Meehan’s Bartender Manual, Jim Meehan writes,

“In my experience, blends containing nonaromatic grapes such as Quebranta are necessary to balance the floral varieties that lend structure in cocktails like the Pisco Sour and Pisco Punch.”

You should give the Pisco Sour and Pisco Punch a whirl, since I’m writing this in the middle of summer and highly recommend you try the refreshing ginger-ale-based Chilcano. It pre-dates the Pisco Sour by decades and is built in a glass rather than requiring a shaker, allowing the Pisco to shine.

Want to read more?

* The final third of Spirits of Latin America covers Pisco

* Kami mentioned The South American Wine Guide during our conversation.

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