While in class, two college buddies felt the need to reconnect with their country, which led to finding something that allowed them to bring together their professional skills and their country, leading them to Pisco, the Peruvian Spirit.
IN THE KNOW: Pisco is a distilled spirit from grapes. What makes it unique from other grape spirits is the process; it comes from wine, not by using by-products such as grappa or orujo, additional to it it has DOC protection, and to be called Pisco has to be produced in the accepted pisquean regions and has to use the eight pisco grape varieties.
Ian Leggett and Alex Hildebrandt are on the mission of creating the Pisco category in the spirits market in the United States and then the world with their brand Pisco Suyo, similar as now we can see with mezcal, “we are looking at the growth of quality spirits, and we don’t want pisco to stay behind” explains Alex the one in charge for sales and distributions in the US. Their product is a “terroir pisco”
They began the project with producers from Mala, in the Lima Region. These piscos are from a single farm, a single variety of grapes, and the same year. They work with producers to have optimal farming, harvest, and distillation, reaching piscos with unique characteristics. “The one from Fundo la Esperanza is from a valley in Mala where the sun only reaches the vines a few hours a day around lunchtime, so these grapes are smaller and sweeter, the cone from Puente Viejo instead comes from a field with more sun and close to the ocean shores so the grape has more salinity,” tells Ian, the one in regular contact with producers.
Just at the end of this interview, Alex and Ian were taking a trip to the southern areas of Peru: Arequipa, Tacna, and Moquegua, looking for new producers. “We want to create visibility for those small producers that have unique products; that will make pisco a new category,” says Ian with a giant smile.Stories like this give us hope for a great future for Pisco.
We have seen how other Drink experts in the world have fallen in love with Pisco giving it space on their bar menu, If you want to try Pisco, you can visit Peru with our partners at Traveling in Peru, and if you are in the United States and wish to try Pisco Suyo, you can find them at in several places all over the US or via Fiasco.
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