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On the Various Meanings and the Ancestral Origin of the Name Pisco
By following the accounts of various European travelers who reached American lands during the 18th and 19th centuries, we can obtain a fairly clear and complete picture of the excellent grape cultivation achieved on the southern coast of Peru, as well as vivid testimonies regarding the quality of those vineyards and the excellence of their products—especially the grape brandy (aguardiente de uva). According to the oldest known document on the subject—the already mentioned will of Pedro Manuel, the Greek—this spirit had been produced in Peru since the 17th century, and by the 18th century it was already known as pisco.
Jorge Juan, a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris, and Antonio Ulloa, of the Royal Academy of London, set sail for America aboard the ships chartered by La Condamine (1735) in order to measure the terrestrial meridian. From Quito, they traveled overland to Lima, where they settled in 1740. They wrote Relación histórica del viaje a la América Meridional, a work published in Madrid in 1748, in which, among many other detailed observations, the meticulous description they made of the products cultivated in these lands is of great interest.
Regarding grape cultivation, they commented: “The grapes in Lima are of various species, and among them there is one that is called Italia there: these are long and of very delicate flavor; but all are produced in parrales (vine arbors), which spread across the ground. This soil is very suitable for them, as it is entirely stony and sandy. These parrales are pruned and watered at the proper time and, with no other cultivation, they thrive. In the same manner are cultivated the vineyards used for making wine, which, both in Ica, Pisco, and Nazca, as well as in other places where they exist, are grown from cepas (vines trained on stakes). No wine is made from the fruit produced in Lima, because, given the great consumption of grapes, they are all sold for eating.”
Ulloa delights in speaking of wines. It seems his pleasure comes from knowing a great deal about them, as if he tasted or decanted them slowly and daily: “There are wines of various qualities,” he says, “some white, others cubiertos, and others red; and among them all,” he adds, “some are exquisite and generous, sourced from the coasts of Nasca, Pisco, Lucumba, and Chile... The one from Nasca is white, and the one with the least consumption there because the others are superior in quality and taste. The one most consumed is that from Pisco, from where all the brandies consumed in Lima are also brought... Ica, Pisco, and Nazca produce a great deal of grapes,” he notes, “from which large quantities of wine are made and shipped to Callao and from there to Guayaquil and Panama.” He adds that from this grape “brandy is also produced.” Referring to Moquegua, Ulloa and Juan point out that, due to its “benign climate,” there were “large estates with vineyards that produce a great deal of wine and brandy.”
The high production, they report, drove an active trade with Huamanga and other highland provinces, even reaching the immensely rich town of Potosí, to which the jars of wine and brandy were transported on the backs of mules along “the arrieros’ route.”
In 1885, the French traveler Jullien Mellet arrived in Peru. He had been traveling through South America with the aim of learning about and reporting on the reality of this part of the world, which appeared exotic in the eyes of Europeans.
Mellet had departed from the port of Bordeaux in 1808 aboard a brigantine. He had been in Buenos Aires, visited Paraguay, and also Chile. The coincidence of his visit to South American countries with the period of independence agitation caused him more than a few problems. He was taken prisoner during the British siege of Buenos Aires, and later in Chile he was arrested by the royalists who had temporarily reconquered the country. After escaping from his captors, he made his way into Peru. Upon returning to his native country, he wrote Voyages dans l’intérieur de l’Amérique Méridionale, which was printed in 1824. In this book, among the detailed record of customs and habits, flora and fauna, and the economic and social situation of Peru at that time, one can read a most interesting account of his visit to the southern coast of the country: “Pisco is a small seaport located 50 leagues southwest of the capital. It maintains a considerable trade with Lima and Guayaquil in wines and brandies; there are always a large number of vessels that come to load these two articles.”
Mellet then provides a detailed description of the surroundings of the city, located “a quarter of a league from the sea.” In it, he offers a series of observations on the viticultural activity of the area: the soils “are covered with vineyards and produce in abundance all kinds of excellent fruits from Europe and America; the wine that is made is called ‘lancha’ and is recognized, perhaps, as the best in all of Peru; and the brandy is so good and much stronger than that of Cognac, so renowned in France... Its temperature is good, although the heat is felt more intensely than the cold; nevertheless, it is very bearable and makes the stay in these regions most pleasant. Its inhabitants, numbering 2,600,” he adds, “are almost all mestizos, mulattos, and quadroons. I made some purchases of brandy; as it cannot be transported in barrels, it is placed in clay jars, each containing one hundred twenty or one hundred twenty-five bottles.”
During that turbulent period, specifically between 1824 and 1827, Hugh S. Salvin, chaplain of the English ship Cambridge—sent to our coasts “to preserve the interests of the United Kingdom in the Spanish possessions”—traveled through the country. In 1829, Salvin published Journal Written on Board of H.M.S. Cambridge from January, 1824 to May, 1827. In the “Diary of Peru,” which forms part of the aforementioned book, we can find, amid the wealth of information it offers, a concise image of the city of Pisco and also what some consider to be the first written document in which the grape brandy is recorded under the name of the port from which it was shipped: “The city of Pisco, almost a mile from the beach, is built like all the cities of Peru: a large square in the center, with streets emerging at right angles. This district is known for the production of a strong liquor that bears the name of the city; it is distilled from the grape in the countryside, toward the sierra, some five or six leagues away. The classic grape is called Italia and has a strong flavor of the Frontignac grape, from which it derives.”
Chronicles and Accounts Referring to the Origin and Virtues of Pisco
Traditional Beverage and Heritage of Peru
Banco Latino 1990
Lima, Peru
Where pisco is the only protagonist!
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