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Peruvian Pisco Pisco is Peru's national spirit, a brandy made by distilling grapes and enjoyed in its pure form or used to mix the most popular cocktails: the Pisco sour and Chilcano. Pisco Experiences in Ica The oasis of Ica, situated around 300km south of Lima, is home to one of Peru’s key wine and pisco-producing vineyards and the most convenient place in Peru to sample the local tipple. Hidden amidst rows of grapes, sits the sprawling bright-pink Hacienda Tacama, a standout winery in the region, which lays claim to being both the oldest winery in South America and Peru’s largest. Hacienda Tacama offers pisco and wine tasting tours, optionally combined with private lunches and a traditional paso horse demonstration. The exclusive wine cellar can be hired for tasting sessions and private dining. Pisco Tasting Tour in Arequipa Far less visited than Ica, outside of Arequipa's city centre there are similarly fertile grape-growing regions which can be visited as a day trip. Peruvian Pisco in the press From the San Francisco Magazine, June 1 2010 “The Peruvians,” says Duggan McDonnell, founding partner of Sutter Street cocktail mecca Cantina, “are not very good at marketing.” Indeed, as I learned from bartending alongside McDonnell for a couple of years at Cantina, most San Franciscans have never tasted pisco, the Latin American country’s iconic spirit. McDonnell is setting out to change this: Along with two partners, he has created his own brand. Campo de Encanto hits San Francisco shops and bars this month. “Do you get the chocolate and mint?” McDonnell asks, waving a half-full glass under my nose. “The pear, spring flowers, jasmine, and white pepper?” His wine rhetoric is appropriate for pisco, which, like cognac, is made from grapes that are fermented into wine, then distilled. The difference is that pisco is not