Pisco ramps up UK focus with cocktail push

By Andrew Catchpole

Published: 22 December, 2025

Peru’s pisco producers have been dipping their collective toes in the UK market for some time, with embassy-backed London tastings attracting small but growing numbers from the trade. At the latest event, though, at the In & Out Club this December, there was a new focus as to the possibilities for pisco – and especially the premium propositions – to grow as an exciting ‘new’ category on back bars and independent merchant shelves in Britain.

Currently the UK sits 10th in the ranks of export markets for pisco, with a 1.6% share (the US tops the charts at 36%), but following a boom and fall during and after Covid, those exports to the UK rose by 82% over the period January-September 2025 compared with the same period on 2024 (all figs from government agency PromPeru).

Total global exports are also on the up, by just over 10% in 2025, though recovering from a 7% dip in 2024, and Peru is optimistic that its producers can now build upon this momentum.

Read more: Wine GB announces ‘vintage of outstanding quality’

The central message delivered at the event was that pisco’s biggest USPs – that it is produced from grapes, distilled only once to preserve that essential character, never aged in wood and not diluted/corrected with water once distilled – make it ideal not just for sipping, but also a shoo-in for modern cocktails.

And in relaxed Peruvian fashion, both Peru’s ambassador to the UK, Ignacio Higueras Hare, and Peru-born mixologist Giancarlo Nazario (pictured), pushed home these points of difference over a selection of well-crafted pisco cocktails.

“We’re here to celebrate something that is a really big deal for us, more than a spirit, pisco is a story that begins in the vineyards of Peru, and is shaped by centuries of tradition,” Hare said, by way of introduction.

“Authentic Pisco can only come from Peru, and that’s the most important idea that I want to show you today.”

Attendees were reminded that Peru registered internationally as the origin of pisco in 2005, with five DOs covering the coastal valleys in the departments stretching south from Lima, also meaning that what Hare referred to the “natural purity” of the product (see above) is locked in by regulations.

Nazario then explained that while there are eight varieties of grapes used for pisco, and which are commonly divided as ‘aromatic’ and ‘non-aromatic’, all are in fact much more aromatic than more mainstream wine grapes, and this difference lies at the heart of the final distillate.

“The aromatic quality of the grapes is in the pisco, the fruity side comes through, because of the grapes, and they are always listed on the bottle,” he said.

“Every time you distil a spirit, you lose character, but pisco is only distilled once, so the character of the grapes comes through in the bottle, in the glass.”

This is where, Nazario added, pisco can shine in cocktails, with that added aromatic and rounded style delivering a hint of the grape origin in the mix, while marking pisco out as a distinct and quite individual spirit when compared with the likes of whisky, rum or gin.

Pisco, of course, already has an internationally recognised ‘hero’ cocktail in the shape of the Pisco Sour, which Nazario first presented. Drawing attention to the softer, seemingly ‘sweeter’ nature of the base spirit, Nazario then made each attendee a Pisco Rouge, combining citrus and rhubarb and raspberry with the base spirit, creating another uplifting take on a sour. This, in turn, was followed by a Peruvian Café, which nodded to the ever-popular Espresso Martini, but using pisco and Peruvian coffee.

Intriguingly, each cocktail was presented with a couple of different dishes of food, to again stress how the ‘grapey’ undertone of the drink made for a spirit that is more compatible with a wide array of dishes, and this worked well.

“We have eight different types of grapes and each grape has a different flavour profile. When you go to the aromatic grapes, you get more tropical aromas, like mango, passion fruit, pineapple, papaya, and when you go to the non-aromatic ones, it’s more like chocolate, coffee, cinnamon, hay, all these wild favours,” said Nazario.

“So this is why, when you guys are creating a cocktail, this is where you can recreate classics with pisco flavours. This is what we do in Peru, you make your favourite cocktail, with whatever spirit you like to use – vodka, whisky, rum, whatever – and switch that spirit for pisco, and you will see great things are going to come out of that.”

The proof, of course, is in the glass, and judging by Nazario’s cocktails, pisco certainly deserves a place as a characterful point of difference on those shelves and back bars. And looking to the current thirst from both mixologists and consumers for the new and adventurous, there’s every chance that this niche spirit will continue to gain followers.

Printer friendly version