Peruvian wine and pisco: a historical vision

Abstract

Peruvian gastronomy is rich due to the native and imported
products used in its elaboration, as well as, its geographical variety and the culinary cultures both local and international brought from Europe, Africa and Asia.

Among the introduced elements, grapes, and the wine produced from them were essential for the Spanish cuisine and religious cult. In 1547, the chronicler Cieza de Leon already mentions vines he saw in Peru and sometime later the Jesuit Acosta estates that it was in Peru where the first wine of the Americas was produced.

Early in the XVII century a grape brandy was already being distilled which in time was called “pisco” because it was shipped from the port of that name. Traveler’s diaries and official documents give evidence to this fact. In 1936,
with the purpose of confusing the American administration Chile changed the name of a town called “La Unión” to “Pisco Elqui” to profit from the well acquired reputation of the name for their firewater.