Pisco

The soul inside the sour: pisco is Peru's grape brandy, distilled to proof in the desert valleys of Ica and never touched by wood. Ingredients: wine grapes — aromatic Italia and Torontel, or the sturdy, earthy Quebranta — fermented into wine in Peru's coastal valleys. Method: 1) Distill the fresh wine once, in copper stills, and — uniquely — bottle it at the strength it leaves the still, with no water added. 2) Rest it at least three months in neutral vessels (never oak, by Peruvian law) so the grape speaks pure. 3) Serve neat in small glasses, or build a sour or chilcano. The experience: intensely grapey and floral, dry and clean — wine's vineyard soul, concentrated. History: Spanish colonists were distilling grape brandy around the port of Pisco by the late 1500s; the spirit took the port's name and sailed the Pacific from there.