If the Pisco Patrol Comes Knocking

I make something I call St. Paris Pisco. Technically, I probably shouldn’t.

Pisco is a grape brandy from Peru and Chile, made from fermented grape juice using specific grape varieties and traditional methods. Grapes such as Muscat, Quebranta, and Torontel are among those commonly associated with it.

Mine starts the same basic way. I ferment grapes into wine and then run the wine through the still. What goes into the still looking like wine comes out the other side as a clear grape spirit. But I’m making mine in Ohio, not Peru or Chile. So, while I may casually call it St. Paris Pisco, I probably shouldn’t put that on a bottle and start selling it.

If the Pisco Patrol ever comes knocking, I’ll just change the name to St. Paris Peace Go.

Ha! You’ll never catch me. you dirty Pisco Coppers!

Pisco Comes to San Francisco

Pisco’s American story gets a lot more interesting during the California Gold Rush.

Getting goods across the United States in the mid-1800s wasn’t exactly an Amazon Prime operation. South American merchants, however, had Pacific shipping routes that could bring goods north to California. Pisco was among the products that made the trip. As miners, merchants, sailors, and fortune seekers poured into San Francisco, so did goods from around the world. Pisco found an audience waiting for it.

Then somebody made punch.

The Drink That Became a San Francisco Legend

Pisco Punch became famous at San Francisco’s Bank Exchange, where bartender Duncan Nicol turned it into one of the city’s legendary drinks.

Nicol also kept his recipe secret. That, naturally, led people to speculate about what exactly he was putting in there. One enduring story even suggested cocaine was among the ingredients.

Maybe.

Maybe not.

Nicol took the secret with him, so we’ll never know exactly what made his version so memorable. What we do know is that Pisco Punch became closely associated with San Francisco. A South American grape brandy had traveled north along the Pacific Coast and found a new home in one of America’s fastest-growing cities.

That’s a pretty good journey for a fermented grape.

My Pisco Punch

Since Duncan Nicol isn’t around to give us the original recipe, I make my own.

3 parts St. Paris “Pisco”
3 parts pineapple juice
1 part raw-sugar simple syrup
½ part lime juice

Mix everything together and pour it over ice. I sometimes muddle a little basil into it and add sparkling water if I want some fizz. Serve it on the rocks with pineapple chunks and an orange slice.

I don’t add cocaine to mine and suggest the same for yours. If you need a little kick, add jalapeno slices instead.

It’s simple, refreshing, and dangerously easy to drink.

From Red Wine to Clear Spirit

That’s the part of the story I especially like.

It starts with grapes. Ferment them, and you’ve got wine. Distill that wine, and you’ve got a clear grape spirit. Add pineapple, sugar, and lime, and you’ve got a cocktail with roots stretching from South America to Gold Rush-era San Francisco. It’s also another example of what I enjoy about distilling. Every spirit has a story behind it, and those stories tend to travel. Ingredients move. Recipes change. People put their own spin on things. Something that began in one place eventually becomes part of the culture somewhere else.

In this case, the journey went from South America to San Francisco and eventually, at least in my version, all the way to St. Paris, Ohio.

Just don’t tell the Pisco Patrol.

‍Call to Action

What’s an unaged spirit from another country that has found its way to you? Let us know in the comments.

Enjoy business lessons from the history and craft of moonshining? Explore more posts in The Stillhouse Blog, listen to the Against the Grain Podcast, or learn more about my upcoming book, Against the Grain: Business Lessons from the Still.