Peruvian terroir

Hello everybody,

Today we are going to talk about the Peruvian wine terroir.

First, Peru is one of the few countries which has such differents natural diversities; the ocean (West coast), Mountains (All over the country North to South), the Amazonian Forest (East of the country) and the desert (South Peru).
Nevertheless even if the temperature can vary a lot depending on several areas, the south of he country (where most of the wineries are located) enjoys wonderfull conditions for the viticulture. Moreover, this country has few rains in the year (0.01 mm per year).

The first vines appeared when The Conquistadores from Spain were invading the country and decided to create their own producing area, but let's talk about our terroir okay ???

As fars as the terroir might be concerned you will be able to enjoy from those wines quite differents and interesting grape varieties.

The Malbec, extremely appreciate in South America for its delicious black flavor, the Cabernet-Sauvignon, more and more trendy in Peru, also Grenache,well-known by lots of connaisseurs in Lima, Alicante Bouschet, Petit Bouschet, (those ones very common in Languedoc Roussillon > South France).
As regards whites wines, the inevitable Sauvignon Blanc is extremely popular therefore one of the most stteped in the local viticulture remains the Torrontes called in peru "Torrontel".
Enventually, Muscat is becoming also very used by peruvian winemakers.

To conclude, for people who are in love with spirits, I cannot finish that introduction without speaking about the main proudest beverage of Peru : Beer ! Cuzqueñas are awesome !!!!  No just kidding ;)

I am talking about Pisco of course !!!!!!!!!!!
This national drink has been discovered in the city of Pisco 200 km far from Lima in the South.
That beverage is roughly what we called Grape Brandy and Pisco is made from only certain varieties of grapes, which are fermented and distilled with the full grape around 30° to 45°.

To get more information about it : http://southamericanfood.about.com/od/drinks/a/pisco.htm


P-S : Don't listen chileans, the Pisco is 100% peruano.