Macchu Pisco
The Peruvian pisco brand that established a credible American market for the Quebranta-based clear grape brandy. Founded in 2006 by sisters Melanie and Lizzie Asher, distilled in Ica, Peru using traditional copper alembic stills and the post-Spanish-colonial Quebranta grape varietal. The Pisco Punch and Pisco Sour anchor brand.
Macchu Pisco is the brand that did the most to make Peruvian pisco available to American cocktail audiences. Founded in 2006 by sisters Melanie Asher and Lizzie Asher—Peruvian-American entrepreneurs who had grown up between Lima and the United States—Macchu Pisco was deliberately built as a premium-import brand targeting the American craft-cocktail revival audience. The branding, the bottle design, and the distribution strategy all aimed at making pisco visible alongside the established gin, vodka, tequila, and rum categories on serious bar back-bars.
The production is traditional. The pisco is distilled in Ica, Peru—one of the four Peruvian regions where the country’s denomination-of-origin pisco rules apply—using copper alembic stills and the Quebranta grape varietal that defines the most-canonical Peruvian pisco style. Quebranta is a non-aromatic grape (distinct from the aromatic varietals like Italia, Torontel, and Moscatel that produce the acholado and aromatic pisco categories); the resulting spirit is clean, grape-forward, slightly nutty, and intentionally less perfumed than the aromatic-grape piscos.
The puro Quebranta framing matters for cocktail use. Quebranta pisco is the canonical reference for the Pisco Sour and the Pisco Punch. The clean, grape-forward profile works in cocktail recipes that need pisco to be a base spirit rather than a flavor agent. For aromatic-grape pisco needs (cocktails that benefit from floral or fruity grape character), Barsol’s aromatic and acholado bottlings are better suited.
The Peruvian pisco regulations are strict: distillation must occur in one of four designated regions (Lima, Ica, Arequipa, Moquegua, or Tacna), the grape varietals are specified, the production process must use traditional copper pot stills, the alcohol must come solely from grape fermentation (no added sugar, water adjustment, or aging), and bottling must occur in Peru. Macchu Pisco meets all of these requirements. The regulations also prevent Chilean pisco (which uses different grape varietals, different production methods, and different aging) from being labeled Peruvian pisco—the two countries have an ongoing trade dispute about the use of the word pisco itself, with Peru maintaining the more restrictive denomination.
For the exotic-cocktail catalog, Macchu Pisco is the Pisco Punch reference brand. The Asher sisters’ marketing has explicitly courted the craft-cocktail revival audience, and the brand sits alongside Barsol (the other Peruvian pisco brand with US distribution credibility) as the two go-to references for Peruvian pisco in modern recipes. Either is acceptable; Macchu Pisco is slightly more visible in US specialty retailers.
Where to buy: Specialty wine and spirits retailers; Total Wine and BevMo carry it consistently. Amazon distribution is intermittent.