There’s a new pisco in town, and it’s a gateway to better cocktails. Pisco Portón debuted in April of this year, and it’s quickly making a big splash in a shallow pond. There aren’t many piscos available in the States—Beverage Warehouse carries less than a dozen.
You may start seeing the bottle in top-notch cocktail bars; it’s the one with frosty glass with the golden inset illustration of the Hacienda where it is distilled: Hacienda la Caravedo in Ica, Peru. It’s a bit on the pricey side, roughly $40 a bottle, but with five gold medals and counting, you’re paying for pure pleasure.
Each bottle of Portón contains the juices of 16 pounds of three different grape varieties: Quebranta, Albilla, and Torontel. Peruvian pisco is only distilled once, and nothing is added, not even water to reduce the proof, and it isn’t aged in wood. Portón’s Master Distiller, Johnny Schuler, says “Pisco doesn’t borrow anything from anyone.” It’s a clear light spirit, and Pisco Portón possesses a very deep flavor profile that contains, at the least, chocolate, pepper, caramel, and I almost thought lime juice was added. It’s very smooth, even at 86 proof—which is exactly the ABV that came out of the copper alembic still back in Peru. Unlike water, it nearly seems to glow from within, “shining like liquid diamonds,” says Schuler.
And for the price to launch the product—$30 million dollars—it seems Texas oil billionaires Bill and Brent Kallop are getting their money’s worth.
Schuler is arguably the world’s foremost expert on Pisco, having fallen in love with the spirit over 20 years ago and awarded the Medal of Honor from the Peruvian Congress for his dedication to pisco and Peruvian tradition, among many other honors. When approached by the Kallops to make the perfect pisco, Schuler balked until they could pay enough to do it right. $30 mil is not a lot to multi-billionaires.
The first move was to purchase the oldest distillery in the Americas, established in 1684. Next, the historical traditions of pisco crafting was refined to environmentally conscious methods, without sacrificing anything in quality. Finally, priceless passion is mixed in: Schuler is called “Gringo Loco” by the workers for using the mosto verde method of distilling only partially fermented grape juice (100% of the product), done cold to capture aromas. They are left to rest in cement containers for five to eight months before bottling, again, with nothing added except love—Schuler is known to kiss the fermentation tanks.
The result is of a much loftier quality than the cheap hangover slip-n-slide that was known in pisco’s heyday in San Francisco, and worthy of connoisseurs willing to expand their minds nearly as much as their palates. Pisco Portón is available in California, Georgia, New York, Florida, New Jersey and Texas. It’s worthy of the expense. Try pouring some in some Schuler-designed glasses if you can, and just admire the way it radiates from within. Nose carefully, and have a sip, and then another, and another. Then try it in cocktails. Feel free to move beyond the traditional Pisco Sours or Punches, and substitute Portón for vodka or even gin. Welcome to, as Schuler calls it, “A new spirit, a Peruvian spirit.”
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