LIMA, July 15 (Reuters Life!) - Peruvians are toasting the boom in increased exports of pisco, a locally-made grape brandy that is experiencing a resurgence of popularity abroad.
The liqueur, which has been distilled from fresh musts of Muscat grapes in copper alembic stills since the Spanish conquest, is considered part of Peru’s cultural heritage, but it also maintains a place in U.S. history.
"It’s definitely caught on with the wealthy Park Avenue crowd," said John Iachetti, director of entertainment at the Loews Regency Hotel on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Iachetti said he ordered one bottle of Peruvian pisco five years ago and now goes through an average of two each week.
The spirit’s ties to the country date to the 1849 California Gold Rush when ships rounding Cape Horn picked up supplies from the Peruvian port of Pisco, including the local aguardiente.
Cholocale from Peru’s cocoa fields soon followed. Italian confectioner Domingo Ghirardelli moved his chocolate business from Lima to San Francisco, where pisco was becoming the spirit of choice. The legendary Bank Exchange & Billiard Room served Pisco Punch, a potent mix of pisco, gum arabic, and lemon and pineapple juices.
British author Rudyard Kipling, who visited the city in 1889, described the concoction as "compounded of the shavings of cherubs’ wings, the glory of a tropical dawn, the red clouds of sunset, and the fragments of lost epics by dead masters."
The unction is experiencing a renaissance in the U.S. after a nearly century-long hiatus. Peru exported about $800,000 in pisco from January to May, a 150 percent increase over the same period last year, according to exporters association Adex. Export sales have more than doubled to $1.4 million since 2006, and have quadrupled in the past decade.
Part of pisco’s rise to international recognition can be attributed to Peru’s government, which has launched a campaign here and abroad to raise awareness about the banner drink.
Every July, pisco is honored with tasting parties across the country. On the appointed day – the last Sunday of the month – a colonial-era fountain in Lima’s main square gurgles with two thousand liters of the tart aqua vitae. Passerby can tip a cup under one of the fountain’s spouts for a taste.
In 2003, the first Saturday of February was decreed a national holiday in homage to the pisco sour, a cocktail invented by an American barman in Lima in the early 20th century that combines pisco with lime juice, egg whites, simple syrup and bitters.
Peru’s 380 producers are expected to churn out 7.5 million liters this year, a 12 percent increase over 2009, according to the Comision Nacional de Pisco (ConaPisco).
The U.S. is the biggest buyer, followed by Chile, which also lays claims to the invention of the drink. Chile’s annual production of 50 million liters a year dwarfs Peru. Nonetheless, Peru recently surpassed Chile to become the number one pisco exporter to the U.S.
The Volstead Act shuttered the doors of the Bank Exchange & Billiard Room in 1919, and the inventor of the Pisco Punch died shortly thereafter, taking the recipe to his grave. In the second half of the 20th century, as political instability hampered Peruvian exports, Chile added pisco to its growing list of products and soon dominated worldwide sales.
Like Mexican tequila and Japanese sake, Peruvian pisco may now join the ranks of celebrated artisanal spirits, finding its way into cocktails sipped in high-end bars from Manhattan to Taiwan.
