Pisco is a spirit category where two countries use the same word for two legally different products. Peru and Chile each protect the name as a denomination of origin, each has its own regulation, and the two regulations disagree on grapes, strength, water and wood. They agree on one thing: both require batch stills and neither allows a continuous still. A Peruvian bottle and a Chilean bottle on the same Australian shelf can have little in common beyond being distilled from grapes.
This guide sets out what each country's rules say, what that means in the glass, how to read the grape on the label, how to drink it, and which of the bottles we carry to start with.
Why two countries make a spirit called pisco
Pisco is a grape spirit: wine, or freshly fermented grape must, run through a still. Peru and Chile both make it, both have written the name into law, and neither recognises the other's claim. This article does not take a side on which came first; that argument is not settled anywhere.
What can be settled is what the rules require. Peru's Reglamento de la Denominación de Origen Pisco, administered by INDECOPI, and Chile's Decreto 521 under the Ministerio de Agricultura are both public documents, and everything below about grapes, distillation, strength and ageing comes from those two texts.
The Peruvian rules
Where. The coast of the departments of Lima, Ica, Arequipa and Moquegua, plus the valleys of Locumba, Sama and Caplina in Tacna.
What it is made from. Eight permitted grapes, called uvas pisqueras, split into two groups. The non aromatic grapes are Quebranta, Negra Criolla, Mollar and Uvina, the last permitted only from three districts of Cañete. The aromatic grapes are Italia, Moscatel, Albilla and Torontel. The rules define pisco as the product of distilling freshly fermented musts of these grapes, and, except for mosto verde, distillation must begin as soon as fermentation has finished.
How it is distilled. In a falca or an alambique, both batch pot stills. Rectifying columns of any kind are banned, as is anything that changes the colour, aroma or taste of the spirit during distillation.
Strength and water. The finished spirit must sit between 38 and 48 per cent alcohol. Article 12 of the regulation prohibits adding sugar or water in any form, whether to the pomace or to the finished product. So a Peruvian distiller cannot distil high and water back: what comes off the still, or a blend of such spirits, is what goes in the bottle.
Rest and wood. A minimum rest of three months before bottling, in glass, stainless steel or any other material that does not alter the spirit's physical, chemical or sensory character, and the finished spirit must be colourless. Peruvian pisco is therefore always clear and never barrel aged.
The three types. Pisco Puro is made from a single pisquera grape. Pisco Mosto Verde is distilled from must whose fermentation was deliberately interrupted, so some sugar is still unfermented when it goes into the still. Pisco Acholado is a blend, made at the grape, must, wine or finished pisco stage. The label must state the type, the grape, the valley and the harvest year.
The Chilean rules
Where. The whole of the Atacama and Coquimbo regions, and the spirit must be both produced and bottled there. The Limarí valley in Coquimbo is the one named on the Chilean bottles below.
What it is made from. Decreto 521 defines pisco as an aguardiente distilled from genuine drinkable wine of the listed varieties, made from grapes with at least 10.5 degrees of potential alcohol. Five principal varieties are named: Moscatel de Alejandría (also called Blanca Italia), Moscatel Rosada, Torontel, Moscatel de Austria and Pedro Jiménez. Six accessory varieties, mostly other Moscatels, are also permitted. Each season's wine must be distilled by 31 January of the following year.
How it is distilled. In batch stills, alambiques de ciclo discontinuo in the decree's words. Continuous distillation is not permitted.
Strength and water. This is the biggest difference from Peru. Decreto 521 sets four categories by minimum strength: Pisco Corriente or Tradicional at 30 degrees, Pisco Especial at 35, Pisco Reservado at 40 and Gran Pisco at 43, with a tolerance of half a degree below each. Chile's general alcohol regulation, Decreto 78, defines an aguardiente as a wine distillate to which nothing has been added except sugar and water, and Decreto 521 caps sugar in pisco at five grams per litre. So a Chilean pisco may be brought down to bottling strength with water, and may carry a small amount of sugar.
Rest and wood. A minimum rest of 60 days after distillation. A pisco labelled Guarda must have spent at least 180 days in contact with what the decree calls madera noble, and one labelled Envejecido at least 360 days. The decree does not name the species of wood or the size of the cask. Chilean pisco can therefore be clear or amber, and the label term tells you which.
What that means in the glass
Peruvian pisco is bottled with nothing added, somewhere between 38 and 48 per cent, and carries the full weight of the distillate, fuller and less perfumed from the non aromatic grapes, lifted and floral from the aromatic ones. It is never woody and never coloured.
Chilean pisco's principal grapes are Moscatels, Torontel and Pedro Jiménez, and Moscatel is an aromatic grape, so the unaged bottles lean towards orange blossom, white flowers and citrus. Because dilution is allowed, strengths run from 30 degrees up. Because wood is allowed, there is an aged side of the category that Peru does not have.
Neither is better. They are different spirits that share a name.
Reading the grape on the label
Quebranta is a Peruvian non aromatic grape, and it gives a fuller, less perfumed spirit. BarSol Quebranta Pisco is a Pisco Puro from Bodega San Isidro in the Ica valley, and the producer states that it is distilled to bottling proof in a copper pot still with neither water nor anything else added, then rested for at least twelve months. The producer bottles it at 41.3 per cent. Neat, it is a fair introduction to the non aromatic side of Peru; in a pisco sour it holds up to the lime.
Macchu Pisco at 40 per cent is the other Peruvian pisco we carry.
Moscatel is the Chilean signature. Pisco Ultra Premium Waqar at 40 per cent is made by Pisquera Tulahuén in the Limarí valley of the Coquimbo region from Moscatel de Alejandría and Moscatel Rosada, distilled in wood fired copper stills at around 1,100 metres, and described by the producer as transparent, without wood and without sugar. Its 40 per cent is the minimum the Chilean rules set for the Reservado category. This is the bottle to open to see why Chilean pisco is called floral.
Aged and smoked. Pisco Ultra Premium Black Heron at 43.5 per cent is another bottling from the same producer. The producer describes it as a smoked grape pisco, made from Moscatel and aged between two and six years in toasted French oak, with soft smoke, coffee and tobacco notes over the fruit. Only the Chilean rules allow it, because Peru permits neither wood nor anything that alters the spirit's aroma.
Outside both denominations. Tiny Friday Gordito at 40 per cent is an Australian grape spirit distilled from a wine made with Muscat Gordo Blanco, which its makers say was inspired by Chilean pisco. Made in Australia, it falls under neither denomination, so we describe it as an Australian Muscat grape spirit rather than a pisco.
How to drink it
Neat. A 30 ml measure in a small tulip or wine glass at room temperature. It is the only way to taste what the grape is doing. Aged Chilean pisco can be treated like a young brandy.
Pisco sour. The drink both countries claim. Peru's Congress records that the Instituto Nacional de Cultura declared the pisco sour part of the nation's cultural heritage in 2007 and that the first Saturday of February was set as its national day. Chile's Decreto 78 defines Pisco Sour as a cocktail produced and bottled in the Atacama and Coquimbo regions from pisco and lemon juice or natural lemon flavouring, at 12 per cent or more. Each side has a founding story, they do not agree, and we leave the question where it is.
A standard recipe: 60 ml pisco, 30 ml fresh lime juice, 20 ml sugar syrup and half an egg white, dry shaken, then shaken with ice, strained and finished with a few drops of bitters on the foam. A Quebranta pisco gives a fuller drink; a Moscatel based Chilean pisco makes a more perfumed one. Either way it is a 60 ml serve of spirit, close to two Australian standard drinks, so treat it accordingly.
Long. A 30 ml pour with tonic or ginger ale over ice and a lime wedge shows the aromatic grapes well.
Where to start
- Never had pisco: Pisco Ultra Premium Waqar, an unaged Chilean Moscatel pisco.
- Want the Peruvian side: BarSol Quebranta Pisco, a single grape Pisco Puro from Ica.
- Both countries side by side: Waqar and BarSol together, one Moscatel from Limarí and one Quebranta from Ica.
- Aged, smoked, unusual: Pisco Ultra Premium Black Heron.
- Australian made, Chilean inspired: Tiny Friday Gordito, keeping in mind it is a Muscat grape spirit rather than a pisco.
The full range sits on our Pisco page, and we deliver to every Australian state and the ACT.