Pisco

In ancient Quechua, the word pisco refers to coastal birds, but like so many Peruvian words, there is more to the story.

Piskos (or pishkos) is the name of the caste of potters who made botijas, the giant, almost amphora-looking clay storage jars the Spanish used to cure Botija olives, and later wine and grape-based spirits—the first rudimentary piscos. (They were called aguardiente de uvas, grape firewater; aguardiente is still a generic term for moonshine in some Latin countries.) The name pisco finally stuck when the port in Ica, the main grape-growing region south of Lima, became the main portal where the grape spirit was exported around the world. It was called the port of Pisco.

Pisco has also been a player in cocktail history closer to my current home in California. Peruvian pisco was firmly planted in San Francisco culture by the mid to late 1800s, when gold brought hundreds of thousands of thirsty fortune seekers to the Bay Area. The spirit was one of many souvenirs brought by seamen returning from trading expeditions in South America. Pisco punch, of all things, a very famous house cocktail first mixed up by barman Duncan Nicol, soon became the city’s unofficial cocktail. Bars all over town made the pineapple and lime punch according to their own unscripted formulas, at least until pisco, like so many other good spirits, all but disappeared from the States during Prohibition. It would be almost seventy-five years until imported piscos would get the same kind of cocktail respect again. I like to think that there is still some of pisco’s original aguardiente passion deep down in the top-quality versions available today.

The Pisco Distilling Process

In Peru, pisco is tightly regulated, down to the eight grape varietals that can be used and the way the spirit is distilled (for starters, no flavors, other than pure grapes, can be added at any point during distillation).

Some piscos in other parts of Latin America are made more like European-style grappas, another grape-based spirit, in which leftover pressed grapes from the winemaking process are recycled. Peruvian mosto verde–style piscos, considered the highest quality and the style typically found in the United States today, are instead distilled from pure grape must (grape juice) that has been partially fermented. That mosto verde, literally “green must,” is very high quality. In a way, the Peruvian pisco-making process is more similar to top-quality winemaking (which begins with the best grapes) rather than the distilling method for some other spirits (with some, more emphasis is placed on the ingredients and flavorings added after distilling). Some distillers, including Pisco Portón, grow their own grapes, as a winemaker might, to ensure that they are the highest quality.

The result is a spirit with a very clean, bright flavor and a broad range of grape aromatics, like you might find in wine. Look for those mosto verde piscos, the style mainly found in the United States, which can be made from one grape or many (those made from a blend of grapes are often considered more complex and are highly sought after). The best piscos have incredibly complex aromas and a smooth, food-friendly finish.