Pisco Route – El Sarcay de Azpitia
 

In November of 2004, seven neighbours from Azpitia, all originally from Lima, shared a country picnic lunch. It was no surprise that during the course of the conversation among the “pisqueros” (Pisco lovers) they each expressed a desire to produce their own pisco, starting with the grapes that grew in their fields. With the shared goal of producing pisco, the conversation touched on ways to combine their efforts. Instead of forming seven isolated mini distilleries, they considered setting up a single one, uniting all the potential and production of their seven fields and taking on a project that could meet the basic needs of a modern distillery, as well as Peruvian technical standards for the manufacturing of pisco. Starting in 2006 with a significant investment, we now produce one of the finest and most successful piscos ever manufactured in Perú.

PISCO GRAPES

The grapes used to produce wine and pisco were brought to Colonial America from Spain during the 17th Century. Only eight varieties of grapes are officially recognized as a source for pisco production, divided in two groups:

Non-aromatic grapes: Quebranta, Mollar, Negra Criolla and Uvina– Negra Criolla is known as the “Mission Grape” in California.

Aromatic grapes:Italia, Moscatel, Torontel and Albilla – These grapes are mainly muscatel varieties.

The three types of pisco:

Puro (PURE ) Produced from only one of the eight recognized varieties (single-variety pisco).

Acholado (BLENDED ) Produced by blending at least two recognized varieties of grapes.

Mosto Verde (GREEN MUST) Produced when the fermentation process is interrupted in order to distil the must, which still has a certain sugar content and the must is green (if the fermentation process had concluded, the distilled product would have been made of mature must).

This process gives more complexity to the body, aroma and flavor of the Pisco.