Spreading the Culture of Pisco: Noches de Cata
Segunda entrevista que me hicieron para la revista electrónica Livinginperu.com
By
Katrina Heimark
While pisco is not relatively young by any means, it certainly lacks an
established culture, such as that celebrated by wine enthusiasts around
the world. And, according to Livio Pastorino, editor of the monthly
e-magazine, El Pisco es del Perú, not only does a culture of pisco need
to be celebrated throughout Peru and the world, but also pisco lacks a
transparent organization of authority on its quality, standards and
production.
Precisely because of this, Livio has established an organization called
Asociación de Catadores Independientes de Pisco (ACIP), in which four
graduates from the Insituto del Vino y del Pisco (IDVIP) meet every
fifteen days to perform what they call blind taste testing of Pisco.
They then publish the results of the testing on their blog, Noches de
Cata. Each time ACIP meets, they taste 8 different brands of the same
variety of pisco. The organization formed a little over a year ago, and
they have sampled over 200 varieties of pisco.
They do so in a very strict, precise, and formal manner, but it wasn’t
always that way. In April of 2009, ACIP began the blind tastings. Livio
states that he noticed a higher level of efficiency, as well as more
honest and transparent rating of the different piscos. “Things changed
when we began the blind tastings,” he states, smiling. “We began to use
the standards set up by the OIV (International Organization of wine and
vine), which we religiously see as the official way of evaluating wines
and piscos.”
“The truth is, in many nationalized Peruvian congresses on pisco, these
standards are not even incorporated into the evaluation of pisco,”
Livio explains. He is proud of his organization, because it is
comprised of pisco lovers without any sort of ties to bodegas,
production or any type of pisco company. “We are more transparent,
which means we can evaluate pisco in a more honest and fair way. Over
60 percent of the evaluators of pisco in the congresses and
competitions are producers or work with pisco in the bodegas. Most are
self-taught, which is different from our group. We were educated in an
institute.” And, Peru doesn’t not have a group that regularly dedicates
itself to the evaluation of pisco, “because it is time consuming,”
states Livio.
ACIP evaluates piscos on a scale of 1 to 100. “When we first began the
tasting, we were really strict,” says Livio. “But now we’ve become more
accepting of varieties, but we certainly haven’t lost our ability to
criticize,” he laughs. A good pisco must achieve a rating between 88
and 90 points, combined from ratings from the four regular tasting
participants of ACIP. However, an excellent pisco has to reach between
94 and 100 points, a tough grading scale.
Livio explains that ACIP proceeds very carefully through all of the
tastings. They only focus on one variety, and although they have little
over 4 months to complete a year of blind tasting, they still haven’t
finished the evaluations of all the different types of piscos. ACIP
only evaluates pisco that one can buy in the major stores in Lima, but
they do once and a while taste a pisco that a producer has directly
sent to them. Livo explains that these tastings are listed in the blog
as “bonuses,” as most people won’t have a direct or easy access to the
alcohol.
Each pisco is evaluated for clarity, aroma, the first impression in the
mouth, the persistence afterwards of the flavors, and the
correspondence between the smell and the flavor. Livio states that the
best way to evaluate a pisco is to drink it close to where it was
produced, as that gives you the sense of aromas, climate and influences
on the grapes while they are growing. “Each pisco picks up the flavors
of the region it is produced in, and it is a completely different
experience to taste a pisco in Lima than in Ica, for example,” he
states.
When asked about his favorite variety of pisco, Livio states “I am a
loyal fan of pure pisco. But out of all the varieties, I would have to
choose one of the aromatic types as my favorite. I fell in love with
the aromatic varieties while studying pisco in IDVIP. It is incredible
when a pisco can remind you of jasmine, magnolias, pineapple, just by
the smell, and when you have the pisco in your mouth, you have the
sensation that you are eating the fruit. It is very difficult to
produce a good aromatic pisco, and because of that I find that it is my
favorite.”
With the organization ACIP, Livio explains that all the group members
have learned that pisco is marvelous. While I would think that goes
without saying, Livio explains that pisco is truly a unique and
versatile distilled alcohol. It has a high number of varieties, and
comes from a limited area of Peru, but yet, it still has a huge range
of diversity and charm. And that, precisely, is why he wants to spread
the culture of pisco, not just through Peru, but through the rest of
the world.
“Someday,” Livio says, “We would like to offer a pisco evaluation
service for the bodegas and the producers of pisco in Peru. And, of
course, we would love to continue doing more and more tastings, as well
as teach Peruvians and foreigners alike the intricacies of tasting and
valuing pisco.” And, with these noble efforts, one can only imagine
ACIP will make it possible.
From: livinginperu