After a few pisco sours (a cocktail of pisco, lime, egg whites, syrup and bitters), you’ll feel it! At 42.5-45% of alcohol, pisco is powerfully potent. But don’t misunderstand me, this is not a dessert wine kind of sweet.
It’s much more ‘sweet’ on the nose and on the palate than a vodka because of the grapes. If you like drinking cocktails with white spirits, say vodkas or gins, you’ll probably really love pisco too. And a very cool aspect of Pisco Porton is they one of the few female pisco makers in Peru on staff: Carmen Gonzalez. Just to geek out a bit here, Portón is an acholado, or blended pisco, made from Quebranta, Albilla and Torontel grapes. It’s made from 100% fermented grapes and in Peru, unlike Chilean pisco, no additional elements can be added, like water or chemicals. It’s similar to the wine making process, except instead of letting the grapes ferment for long periods of time in oak barrels, it ferments for only 7-10 days in stainless steel barrels and then is distilled through copper alembics. “Techno-artisanal” is how he describes the old world-meets-new world pisco-making techniques at Pisco Portón distillery. And they’ve also built a gleaming high-tech distillery as well. They’ve maintained the historical distillery, still making pisco the original way. It was originally a distillery run by the Jesuits, founded way back in 1684, making it the oldest distillery in Peru. Not only is Pisco Portón’s distiller an interesting character, but the property is as well. Ok maybe he doesn’t shower in it, but he does admit to using Pisco Portón as an aftershave!
Since then, he literally breathes, dreams, lives and even bathes in pisco. I fell in love with pisco and it fell in love with me,” says Schuler. Once the fateful encounter with high-quality pisco occurred, it was love at first sip. Before that, he describes the cheap pisco as, ‘harsh, gave headaches and made you see wild animals’. On a recent inaugural trip to Peru, I went with a few other journalists and bartenders to discover its glories at the Pisco Portón distillery in the Ica Valley.Īnd no visit to the Pisco Portón distillery is complete until you’ve met master distiller Johnny Schuler aka Peru’s pisco king. There are over 600 different pisco makers, and 483 government registered pisco makers in Peru (the making of pisco is regulated like tequila is in Mexico). Pisco, a white spirit made from grapes, is like the cognac of Peru, with origins dating back to the 16th century.