GRAPES ARRIVE

Everything began with the 1522 Royal Ordinance: “All ships leaving for the New World must carry grapevines;” that’s how grapes arrived in America from Spain. Early accounts of the conquest are testimony to the origin of the vine in Peru. Pedro Cieza de León claimed to have seen vines in Peru in 1547, when he was advancing from the north towards Lima on Pedro de La Gasca’s expedition.

At the end of the 16th century, Garcilaso de la Vega, in his Royal Commentaries, explains how the Toledan Caravantes sent someone to Spain for vines due to a shortage of wine; and the Jesuit Bernabé Cobo indicated that Lima was the first place vines were planted, giving credit to Hernando de Montenegro for introducing grapes, as he planted the vine and obtained grapes in 1551.

WINE IS PRODUCED

Wine production therefore began in the 16th century. Father Cobo mentions the production of white wine in Nazca. Stating: “In the Nazca valleys they’ve been treading grapes for a few years now, placing them in sacks, which leaves the wine much purer and clearer and whiter, making each pitcher four reales more expensive.”

And the naturalist Joseph de Acosta, who arrived in Peru in 1572 and stayed for 14 years, describes early wine production in Peru in his Natural and Moral History of the Indies, published in Spain in 1590. According to Acosta, the wine from Peru was “abundant and good”; indicating that the quality responded to the geography and nature of the coast and the use of pre-Hispanic techniques for adequate cultivation

A BRANDY CALLED ‘PISCO’ IS BORN

Pisco is a port on Peru’s central coast (250 km south of Lima) from which the liquor produced in the valleys of Ica, Pisco and Chincha was shipped, and it was therefore called “Aguardiente de Pisco”. This is where the name of our distillate originates.

The town and port of Pisco was recorded on the first map of the South American coast by cartographer Diego Méndez in 1574. Its name was given by Pachacutec in reference to the birds of the area which he called “Piscu”, meaning bird in Quechua. Pisco, as a place name, dates back to the Inca conquest of the coast around 1450.

The oldest record of the spirit from Ica and Pisco is in the will of Pedro Manuel, “El Griego”, dated April 31, 1613, in Ica and discovered by historian Lorenzo Huertas. Here, Pedro Manuel, states that he had: “thirty burney jars full of aguardiente, equivalent to one hundred and sixty ‘botijuelas’ (big bottles) of aguardiente, plus a barrel full of aguardiente, equivalent to thirty ‘botijuelas’ of said aguardiente.”

Other records of Peru’s aguardiente date from the first third of the 17th century from the notes of Pedro de León Portocarrero, ‘The Portuguese Jew’, discovered and published by the Argentine historian Boleslao Lewin. In these he stated: “they make a lot of brandy in Peru and its very good.”

Bernabé Cobo, in his History of the New World, also points out that, when he lived in Pisco around 1625, aguardiente was one of the products obtained from the vine.

PISCO CONQUERS TRAVELERS

The name “Pisco” for the liquor of the region of Ica and its port was registered by several travelers. William B. Stevenson in 1814, regarding his passage through the port of Pisco, said: “The aguardiente generally called Pisco, named after the place where it is made, has a good flavor and is colorless.”

In 1815 Frenchman Julian Mellet detailed his impression of the commercial importance of the port of Pisco in his ‘Voyages dans l’intérieur de la Amerique meridionale’, also stating that the liquor was good and stronger than French cognac.

British clergyman Hugh Salvin visited the port of Pisco in 1825, writing in his diary: “This district is known for making a hard liquor that bears the name of the city.”

PISCO IN THE REPUBLIC

At this time, the fame of Pisco continued to grow. Visitors give an account of the drink and its place of origin. Heinrich Witt, a German merchant who arrived in 1824, talks of the Quilca Valley (Arequipa) in his diary, alluding to drinking “wine, Pisco and chicha,” and, after visiting the town of Pisco, he wrote: “Pisco is the port of Ica, 14 leagues away, and from here all the country’s brandy or aguardiente produced and distilled there is exported. That is where the name Pisco comes from, the word by which brandy is known throughout Peru.”

Swedish sailor Carl Johan Skogman visited Peru with the frigate “Eugenie” between 1851 and 1853, and on passing through Pisco, he said: “an aguardiente is produced there on a large scale, it is very well received all along the western coast and is simply known as Pisco.”

As regards Pisco production, the work of Peruvian landowner and businessman Domingo Elías stands out, who worked on developing and industrializing the agriculture behind the vine. His achievements caused admiration among travelers who came to Pisco at that time, among them Englishman Clemens Markham, who in 1853 visited Elías’ wineries in Pisco, declaring after tasting aguardiente: “The best Italia is made of a large white grape and is delicious.”

CURRENTLY

Despite a series of factors towards the end of the 19th century and start of the 20th century that weakened the winemaking industry, it recovered and now Peruvian companies produce Pisco using the most modern technology and equipment, together with high-level specialists in production and marketing. Likewise, the South American country has small, artisanal wineries that are renowned for the quality of their Pisco.