The Distillery
Viejo Tonel’s distillery is located on the same property as its vineyards. It was built to Viejo Tonel’s specifications and contains crushing equipment, fermentation tanks, its historic English sweet copper still pot, holding tanks and bottling equipment. It is here that Viejo Tonel’s handpicked grapes are cleaned, de-stemmed, pressed, fermented and distilled. Pisco Viejo Tonel is able to produce consistent, high quality Piscos because its controls every phase of the process to their exacting standards. Viejo Tonel’s quality and consistency is maintained by the use of the highest quality grapes which they grow themselves, as well as the high quality processes and standards used in the distillery.
What makes the distillery even more unique is its use of a historic English sweet copper still pot. The use of this sweet copper still pot gives Pisco Viejo Tonel a particular quality that cannot be replicated by other distillers. This still pot is used to heat and distill the fermented must. Legend has it that three English still pots arrived in the Ica Valley over 100 years ago. It is unknown what happened to the other two still pots, but the remaining English sweet copper still pot was acquired by Viejo Tonel when it began operations. It was manufactured by E&W Pontifex and Wood in London presumably in the mid-1800s. Traditionally, sweet copper still pots are believed to be the best way to distill fine spirits and that is why Pisco Viejo Tonel is distilled in this fashion.