Pisco inferno
One of the tourist excursions from La Serena beach resort in northern Chile is to go "up the Elqui". It's a hard, three-hour drive inland on narrow, twisting roads leading into a valley on the edge of the world's driest desert, the Atacama.
It's a well worn path. New Age hippies flock here in search of Elqui's mysterious "ley lines"; astronomers star-gaze here at one of the world's largest observatories at La Tolodo; and intrepid drinks journalists go in search of the home of pisco, Chile's national drink.
At Pisco Elqui, in the heart of the valley, the scenery is at its most dramatic.
Fertile valley
The sheer vastness of the arid grey mountains rising steeply on either side, the startlingly blue sky, extraordinary luminosity and soaring temperatures make Elqui an eerily evocative place. A thin, fertile, green strip winds through the valley, fed by spring water channels leading from the Andes. Here, the best pisco grapes (Moscatels - de Alejandria, de Austria and Rosado) are grown.
Rows of terraced vineyards are interspersed with high grey nets, protecting them from fierce afternoon winds that sweep down the gully. At the head of the valley the heat is unbearable, the rainfall and humidity very low. Between parched vines, grapes are spread out on huge mats or hung up under straw shades to dry - concentrating sugars for "vino nectar", an excellent Moscatel dessert wine. But the majority of grapes leave the valley, going to Vicuna or La Serena distilleries to make Chile's quality colourless brandy, pisco.
Elqui is the most important of five designated pisco valleys, alongside Copiapo, Huasco, Choapa and Limari. La Union village in Elqui was only recently renamed Pisco Elqui. "The name derives from ‘piscu' (‘flying bird' in Inca language)," says pisco expert Jan Read. A descriptive term for this powerful spirit's effects, perhaps. It was first named pisco in Chile in 1871 at Vicuna, near the Elqui valley.
Peru has a port called Pisco, 100 miles south of Lima, and Peru and Chile still fight over the name today. Peruvian pisco is different, made from molasses and grapes, tasting like rum. Bolivia's Singani, made solely from Muscat of Alejandria, has floral aromas similar to Chilean pisco. Both Peru and Chile strictly regulate their pisco with appellation, yields and grades.
In Chile there are still small producers, such as Ivan Munizaga Rodriguez at Los Nichos, who makes pisco especial, vino nectar and "chicha" (part-fermented must). But two vast co-ops, Control and Capel, dominate 95% of pisco's industry. Both brands are available in the UK.
In the 1990s Capel began diverisfying into table wine, converting pisco vineyards at Francisco d'Aguirre in the Limari valley into classic wine varietals - an indication, perhaps, that the market has reached saturation point?
Judging from Capel's Vicuna distillery, Chile's "happy-juice" industry is in need of some reinvestment in modern, stainless-steel equipment. Destalked grapes here are crushed, macerated to preserve aroma, and fermented at 18ºC in cement tanks. The wine is distilled at 90ºC in wood-fired, copper Charentais-type pot stills to 50-60% alcohol, nearby copper mines offering a ready supply. Maturation in vats of South American beech casks impart no flavour, but with longer ageing, freshness and floral aromas give complex vanilla bitter-almond flavours.
Different grades
"Popular strengths in Chile and the UK are low, at 30-35%," says Christian Pedevila, export manager of Pisco Capel. "Germans and Scandinavians like theirs stronger, at well over 40%." These different grades are named Seleccion (30%), Especial (35%), Reservado (40%) and Gran Pisco (43%). All piscos are dry, and the majority are colourless, apart from very high-strength spirits, which will have been aged for a long period in wood.
Pisco was billed as "the most happening new drink sensation" when it arrived in the UK two years ago. Everyone who returns from a visit to Chile raves about the drink and its potential. But one wonders whether it really has caught on yet in the bars over here. Few of the cocktail maestros, let along the punters, make use of it.
"We are one of the few bars in town to have created our own pisco-based cocktail," says Gavin Hough of the Lab Bar in London's Soho.
"With all things Latin high on the agenda, we need bars to get their hands on pisco and present their customers with something new and authentically Latin American," says Emma Bolger of Oddbins, UK importer of Pisco Capel.
And with the rumoured current shortages of Tequila, surely the time is ripe to look for something new?
Pisco is also an excellent alternative to vodka or gin. Its heady aromas particularly appeal to wine lovers. So give the lychee martinis a miss this month and go Latin: make a pisco mix. n
