History of Pisco (from the Peruvian slant)

Peruvian Pisco is a grape brandy, distilled from fresh grape must in stills that do not rectify the final product.  Thus the pisco obtained from the distilling process is transparent or slightly yellowish, with an alcohol content that runs at around 42%.

Pisscu means seagull in Quechua, the Inca language spoken nowadays by 30% of the Peruvian population.  It was also the name of a fertile valley located 250Km south of Lima which is visited by condors and was settled by descendents of the ancient Paracas culture (800-1000 A.D.).  Here the local potters, also called “piscos”, crafted the large clay jars used to ferment chichi and other alcoholic beverages.

In century XVI grapes arrived in Peru from the Canary Islands, brought by Marques Francisco de Caravantes.  Chronicles of the time indicate that it was in the Marcahuasi property, in Cusco, where the first vinification in South America took place.  They also say that Mateo Atiquipa was the first American oenologist.  Nevertheless, it was in valleys of Ica that those cultures widely expanded, mostly due to the propitious climatic conditions of the location, and this is the reason why it is in this zone that the wine industry was developed with such force.

When the Spanish Conquerors arrived in the sixteenth century, they found this part of the South Coast featured the ideal conditions to plant Mediterraneon grape varieties, and thus were able to plant them here thanks to the skill and knowledge of the ancient Peruvians who invented a system of irrigating the arid coastal desert through channels and water holes.

When the Spaniards began distilling, they baptized the grape brandy “pisco”, as well as the port from where it was shipped, as can be seen from maps dating back to the late sixteenth century.  Pisco exports reached their height between the seventeenth and eighteenth century.