Francis (2): 1:23

Hello, mark. Morning Francis. Uh, how are you this morning? I'm terrific. This is my first show back since having visited the, Balkans. I was actually out at the Balkans International Wine Competition. Crazy, huh?

Mark: 1:37

Well, I would say interesting, but I don't know.

Francis (2): 1:42

No, really It was, it was crazy. It was held in, uh, Sophia, Bulgaria.

Mark: 1:48

So what, wines were there? What, wine producing countries were, were in? Bulgaria, Serbia,

Francis (2): 1:53

Bulgaria, Greece was there because that's on the Balkan Peninsula. Okay.

Mark: 1:56

Now we talked about Greek wines on the, on the show before, and yeah, I think, uh, they, they reemerged first from this area.

Francis (2): 2:02

I mean, people don't often think of Greece as a Balkan country and Greece was, uh, you know, Greek wines in this country are, are really have a foothold that's been building for years. And the other Balkan wines don't. You

Mark: 2:14

don't see a lot of Bulgarian wine out there, but we, and I, and I haven't tried any wines from those, from those other places yet, but I have tried the Greek wines and they're very interesting and very good, and are very, and getting better, all sunny and getting better. Every vintage

Francis (2): 2:25

now in the Balkan countries, the Balkan comp countries that I tasted a lot of wines from were Macedonia. Uh, Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, that's where most of my tasting mm-hmm. Uh, was, sort of, was centered.

Mark: 2:38

And did you have experience with those types of wines before? This?

Francis (2): 2:40

Not, not a one. Literally never had a Bulgarian wine before. I was in Bulgaria. Never had a Serbian wine before I was in Bulgaria. And, um, this was a competition. the panel of judges was distinguished wine, professionals from all around the world. I was not a judge. I was there as a participant. which is not to say I'm not distinguished'cause, you know, I've got gray hair. Um, but I, I really found a whole new thing. And what's interesting is this is an emerging wine region and. But it's also a historical wine region and you know that the For Yoli is out there, need to know. That's what Mark and I love to find, is people who are, are resurrecting tradition traditions that were lost, you know? And I think that comes from growing up with bakery bread in some time. When I was six, my mother switched to wonder and now I'm back in, you know, I'm like, why did you do that?

Mark: 3:27

Yeah. When did a hotdog roll become a hotdog roll? Yeah. That's, that's kind of the theory.

Francis (2): 3:32

Well, and, and here's what happened in many of the Balkan countries, I mean, world War II dealt a serious blow to, um, wine production in the Balkans and in Eastern Europe in general in, in Hungary, and Slovakia as well. Then after the war, communism was no great friend of high quality wine. I mean, that, that goes for Hungary, that goes for Slovakia.

Mark: 3:54

Sure. You know, any of, any of those countries that were behind the Iron Curtain, if profit was not the motivation. Well, there's, it's a lot more work to make great wine. Right. And also,

Francis (2): 4:04

you know, you had, let's remember after World War ii, there was a glut in wine. So you had a, a worldwide glut and not very much demand. So you had problems in Bordeaux and Burgundy as they tried to rebuild and were looking for Right. The great Bordeauxs at that time were selling for$6 a bottle. Right. And you are, and, and you know, they did things like, um, look at the region of proof we say, which. Back before World War II was a little area around OOI and a little area around f say two little villages in, in Burgundy, in the Mac Hall. And after World War ii, they said, oh, it's that, and, uh, everything for like, uh, a mile, two miles in each direction, you know? Mm-hmm. I'm, I'm exaggerating it, but they expanded the borders because they needed the revenue. So you have this worldwide wine glut and. communism wasn't very good at producing artistic things. It wasn't very good at producing, you know, fine quality things plus, you know, quality wine. The wine that wasn't the wine of the people was kind of decadent. And unless you could sell it to the west, there was no, there was no home market for it. most of that wine had been drunk in that region before World War ii. So. It really, you had wine traditions disappear so did you get any of the backstories about how it's reemerging

Mark: 5:09

and, and you know why it's happening now in Bulgaria?

Francis (2): 5:12

Well, first of all, I want to say that, that one of the things that was really wonderful about this wine conference, a guy I, I met named Dusan, who's really terrific, he called, he's a Serbian guy, you know, who hangs out with Croat winemakers and Bulgarian winemakers and, and he calls it wine diplomacy. You know, the, the people at that table represented countries that even very recently, Serbia and Croatia Sure. Have, have not exactly gotten along post-communist. Mm-hmm. And, uh, but the wine people do. And the wine people are building the bridges and, Europe is spending a lot of money in Bulgaria and in infrastructure. And in infrastructure. Yeah. And basically, uh, you're seeing some. World class wineries going up there and some really talented people who are really passionate about the wine.

Mark: 5:55

I think most of our listeners would be surprised to hear that there are world class wineries being built in Bulgaria right now.

Francis (2): 6:00

in Bulgaria and Serbia, People see that if they can make great wine, there will be a market for great wine. Well, let's, let's. Are these areas conducive to growing great grapes? They have thousands of years of history of growing grapes. You know, they always grew great grapes. And then we had this, this traumatic incident of World War ii, and then communism never allowed it to come back again. And now we're at an area where there is the interest for it. They are private sector economies again. And now you have the subsidies from Europe in many cases, which provide the capital. And there is a lot of capital in in these places. you know, they're doing two things Oh, I'm, overreaching here. It's overly broad. It seems to me that Some of them can make good in, Western European varietals, Cabernet, sauvignons and merlots and syrahs. I had a couple of syrahs from Macedonia that were phenomenal. Um, but I don't know whether it's that their wine making isn't right in, in many cases I had some very expensive Cabernets that tasted like they were made in an oak box, you know, I mean, it was just an oak and no, well, you see that in California as well, so, absolutely. So I don't know whether it's that the wine making hasn't caught up yet, or, but what I found was. Even if they make a good merlot who cares? I mean, the world needs another good merlott from a new place. Um, it, I didn't find them to be unique, uh, and I didn't find them to be great. What I found to be great were native varieties that are sometimes written in lic, uh, and when they translate into the Roman alphabet, they don't have any vowels. So, very hard to pronounce on all consonants name. I'm exaggerating, of course, but I went to a seminar. I went to an advanced seminar on vranac which is, uh, V-R-A-N-A-C. Uh. Phenomenal. It was, it was Macedonian vranac from the different wine regions of Macedonia. Does does it have a, a comparable grape here? No. Is there something that No. I, I do not think it does. Was it

Mark: 7:43

white

Francis (2): 7:44

or red? It was red. It was a red grape and it, it was delicious and it, it really, I got seen not only good examples of it, but I got the good examples of it showing different. Senses of terroir or different senses of place from within Macedonia. It was fascinating. I had a Serbian prokupac which is P-R-O-K-U-P-A-C-I think.

Mark: 8:06

I'm sure that's wrong.

Francis (2): 8:07

I think it's right actually. I spent, I spent a little time there, you know, and, um, it was gorgeous. It was gorgeous. And, I brought four bottles back And if anyone wants to come and try them, they can come and try them. And when they're gone, they're gone. Are you gonna pick a day? I'm away. Then a try. We'll be back in just a moment. You're listening to the restaurant guys, restaurant guys radio.com. today we are joined from his vineyards in Peru, uh, by, Johnny Schuler. Johnny is an author, chef restaurateur, distiller television personality down Devin Peru. And he is also the founder and proprietor of pisco Porton, which is, uh, something we're gonna talk about for the rest of the segment.

Mark: 8:44

Johnny Schuler, welcome to the show.

Johnny: 8:46

Hey Francis, mark, thanks a lot. Great to be with you guys.

Francis (2): 8:49

So you are actually speaking to us from your vineyards in Peru right now.

Johnny: 8:54

Right now I'm Anika about 300 kilometers south of Lima in the vineyards of. The oldest working distillery in Americas.

Francis (2): 9:04

That's just

Johnny: 9:04

beautiful place.

Francis (2): 9:05

That is so awesome. And if you guys wanna see a video, check out the, out the website video. It's, it's pretty wild. Johnny, why don't you start, why don't we start off with you telling our listeners, what is pisco

Johnny: 9:16

Well, pisco Francis is they, uh, distilled spirit, uh, made from, uh, wine. It's It's not, a distill spirit like a made from palm. It's, uh, distill spirit made from wine, and, uh, it's regulated by a norm here in Peru, pretty strict. We have only, uh, the limited, regional, geographic area where we can grow. These eight particular vts beneath it are grapes that historically. So the last 350 years have been used only for the production of pisco. Uh, pisco is distilled in, uh, copper pot stills in, uh, single distillation. It's a product that has, uh, several singularities that make it really, really wonderful in the world of series.

Francis (2): 9:56

So basically what we're gonna start from the premise of this is a brandy. This is a true brandy.

Johnny: 10:02

Right. We, we, we, we don't wanna call it a brandy because we wanna be our own category. Right. Want to be recognized as pco. Right. Okay. Fair enough. Basically, yes. Okay. Basically, in the world of spirits, we could call it a brandy that is un age and un wooded. Right? Right. So it's, uh, it's a product that does not go into oak. And it's not h it's rested for in the ton is rested for about a year, year and a half before being bottled because we need this, uh, this product to, to evolve, to mature inside, large containers. It, it is a brandy on h it's a clear crystal product. It's still in Copper Pot, still like a brandy. It's single, uh, distillation. Uh, most brand. It's a skill to prove that it makes a big difference between the rest of the spirit that I made from grapes or from wine like cognac or brandy, or. that are painted by, by the oak. Right? Well, let's, we don't want that.

Mark: 11:01

Let's, yeah.

Johnny: 11:03

I romance,

Mark: 11:03

I wanna ask that question nearly every place in the world that distills wine and, and either into brandy or, pisco or other spirits, nearly every place in the world ages that in, in oak barrels. Why do you choose to not do that for peace? Scale?

Johnny: 11:19

cause, uh, again, we are made from wine. And, uh, what we're looking for is like in a wine, when you cab, you're looking for the, uh, original aromatic structure of the grape. This is what we're looking in pisco. You have a pi made of pure CTA grape. You have a pisco made of grape, you have a piece made of, uh, Italian grape or muscats. And what we are looking for is the original aromatic structure of the grape, not changed by an external addition. We don't borrow flavors from oak. We want our flavors from nature, from the, from the earth, from the per water, like in wine, because we didn't make them wine, you know? So this is what we're looking for. We, we put our nose into a glass, pisco, and we're smelling. Aromatic structure. Each grape has a back to the flowers, fruit, spices that different. She creates l and wine We want that structure to be, remain unchanged.

Francis (2): 12:26

You know, Johnny, um, one of the things I, and I, we have a lot of experience with pisco. We love pisco, hit the American market. Uh. Currently it's been in the American market for a long time in one way or another, but hit the American market oh, about seven years ago, or eight years ago, up in the northeast. and I've enjoyed pisco cocktails and people should know that the, that pisco Sour is the most popular cocktail in Latin America and becoming one of the most popular cocktails in America. Um. Of all the peace skills that I've tried and I, and there are a few out there that I like. Yours is the only one. And it's funny that you talk about maintaining the grape variety, you know, the character of the grape party that, that I enjoy sipping. And, uh, we had, we had the opportunity, you were at the restaurant recently and we did a dinner with Dale DeGraff and, um. You and I sipped it more than a few glasses together, not in a cocktail. And, and you know it, but it, you know, I think Porton, pisco Porton is singular because it really, you know, it's a white spirit that you could, that you can sip. And I, and, and I, that's the first time I've experienced that in a, in a pisco is that traditional to drink that way. And in, in Peru,

Johnny: 13:25

my argument that pisco is for friendship, pisco for drinking pisco is for conversation. Is a friendly drink, right? Yeah. It's, pisco can be used for, for cocktails Porton has been designed with a concept of cocktail making. You've tried it, we've done it with you and with Dale and we're having a wonderful time with mixologists in the States. But in case of Porton in particular, it is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful spirit Drink on itself.

Francis (2): 13:54

do people drink, portco in, in Peru and Chile on, on, its on its own generally? Or is it always made in the taco?

Johnny: 14:02

I think, I think more in Chile is more mixed than they either popular drink down there. In Peru. Yes. Hard to listen to Drink it straight. To drink it meat.

Mark: 14:11

Well, well, let's talk a little bit, we, we have to bring up, uh, the, the differences here between Peruvian pisco and Chilean pisco. I know you're, you're, you're very proprietary about your, Peruvian pisco and, and the name pisco. And, and so tell us a little bit about the differences between Peruvian pisco and Chile and pisco.

Johnny: 14:30

I, I have to start a little bit. if you allow me with the history, the Port of pisco, which is very close to where I am right now, was founded around 15 hundreds, late 15 hundreds, and there is where the Spanish es shipped. This beautiful spirit that they found here, that they, they, they grew here because they brought the grapes down. You know, they're, the missionary needed the grapes for wine making for Matt on Sundays. Mm-hmm. So the production was so abundant that they turned it into a spirit. We had to ship the spirit from a port in, it's called pisco, which is very close to where I'm standing that gave the name to the product. Now, the difference that you're asking for one of the main singularities. Peruvian pisco needs to have is that it is distilled to proof and in the norm. That means Francis and I know you, you guys are your followers, are all basically great experts in the world of spirits.

Francis (2): 15:28

but we may as well tell all the listeners what we mean by that.

Johnny: 15:31

So the world of spirits. Uh, most spirits are distilled to a high proof gin, vodka, whiskey, tequila, cognac, arm, manc, uh, rum. They're all distilled to high proof. And how do they bring it down to bottle Proof is by addition of water, which is a normal standard procedure, right? You know that. We all know that.

Francis (2): 15:54

Of course.

Johnny: 15:55

It's against the law. It's against law in Peru. So Peru, it has to be. Bottle at the proof it comes from the still. This is distilled to proof

Francis (2): 16:07

and that's a much more expensive way of doing business. A

Johnny: 16:09

much more expensive way. Sure. Because I need about 18 pounds of crates for above a per pound. Yeah. Right, right. Because I'm not distilling to high proof, I'm getting rid of heads of tails. I only use the heart,

Mark: 16:21

We also have to tell them what heads and tails are. I think a lot of people who, uh, don't, don't, don't know distillation as well as we might, might not know what heads and tails are

Johnny: 16:30

I have to make a wine grant. I have to ferment my grape that crisp my grapes. I ferment them with natural wild yeast. You do not use artificial yeast. Use natural wild yeast. We ferment. Permutation finishes. It is a raw, fresh wine, right? It's not a finished wine, but it is the wine because the mu, the juice has no alcohol. You can't distill something, has no alcohol. So the yeast has transformed the sugar into potential alcohol. The wine is a fresh wine. You take this into a copper pot skill. You fired up the first vapor. The first steams that come out are the heads, the vape carry a lot of aromas. Are very light alcohols that you don't want in your finished product because it will change or will uh, uh, affect the aromatic structure once you have a few liters of that skin condensed. Then you, you by the nose, you put, you smell it, and you found that these aromas are gone. Then the heart begins to throw, you separate the heart into another container. As distillation begins to end, you're gonna begin to lift the heavy alcohols, which have aromas like, uh, nail polish remover and things like that, that are not nice anymore. Then you cut again and the tails. And you only keep the heart So my whole process, I only use about half

Francis (2): 17:55

when you make a wine, you, you add yeast to, uh, a grape juice, which has sugar in it, and if it eats all of that sugar, if the yeast converts all of that sugar into alcohol, you have a dry wine. If you stop the fer, you have a dry wine. If you stop the fermentation process before that's done, you have a slightly sweet wine'cause you, you've stopped the, the yeast before. It's eaten all the sugar. And so that makes for a really unique, sweeter wine. You'll find that in a lot of German wines that have a touch of sweetness to them. And um, so obviously that's another step to make, to make your, your spirit other, most of everything.

Johnny: 18:26

You're absolutely right. And that sweet wine is the one we take to the still. Silver that was strut out from the Peruvian end is un melted in Dan Marie and er a crystal glass for enjoyment. The light is absolutely beautiful. Yeah, and then what it gives is that sugar. That has been in the wine does not go through the still because sugar doesn't evaporate what evaporates or alcohols. But those alcohols are rounder, are more complex, are more interesting. They've picked up all the erratic structure from the grape and they carried it into the final product. And then at the mouth, the feel how it explodes in your mouth when you swallow it, It's so smooth. It doesn't burn your throat. It's absolutely a gentleman's. Drink. Drink.

Mark: 19:12

So I interrupted you while you were telling us about the differences between Chilean pisco and Peruvian pisco. If you want to, if you want, finish that thought.

Johnny: 19:20

and I'm looking at the, at, at the end of my vineyard here. It's a desert. The sand dunes, nothing grows. Absolutely. Were irrigated by trickles of glaciers that milk from the Andes and come down this way. Otherwise, the whole coastal perus a desert. Now this. Generates generate a lot of heat during the day and a lot of cold during the night. Perfect for grapes, lwa. Right? Right. Which we all know that that's a perfect condition for grape, but that heat during the day evaporates water and concentrates sugar. This doesn't happen in Chile. Chile in their first escalation of, they go through the steel, their product like Cognac that has to do that two step Chile product. Comes out at 23 or 2040 piece of alcohol. Not enough for bottled proof. So what do they do? They need to take the heads and the tails. They put'em in the rectifying column. They turn it into pure alcohol, wine, alcohol, share enough. And then they add this to their pisco, which lifts the alcoholic volume degree value to about 76 or 78 degrees. And then they have to add water. To bring it to the 33 or 35 proof. 33 or 35% alcohol. They sell, they sell a pisco on 70 degrees of alcohol. Right. 70 proof. Right. So their product is about one third Real pisco and third's water. Wow. Yeah. According is about one half, uh, you could say Peace, PECO and one have water. Mm-hmm. Peruvians, we cannot use water. This is a very, very, very important element, Francis. This is something everybody has to know. We are absolutely by law, by norm, distill to proof.

Francis (2): 21:07

You know, I, I think that is fascinating and the differences between, I'm attending a seminar down, it tells the cocktail where we're both going to be in a, in a, a short period of time, uh, in New Orleans. I mean, on a, a difference between. Peruvian and Chile and pisco that I, I, you know, I think is fascinating and, and it, you know, it's an emerging, ingredient. If you're a bartender and you're listening or if you're making drinks at home, you've got to have pisco behind your bar. And, and it takes a little knowing about, because it's not in our cultural lexicon right now, but pisco was available in the United States before Prohibition, wasn't it, Johnny?

Johnny: 21:39

It wasn't. Sure. It was, it was. We drink in the title of San Francpisco. The time of the 49 years, you've got to, you have to read the book by, uh, this book that's called, uh, Marbury Coast, that was written by Herbert Asbury. It talks about the cosmopolitan life of San Francpisco in the 1860s and seventies, and he talks about the most popular war in San Francpisco. The best appointed bar in San Francpisco was the bank exchange, and the most popular thing in the bank exchange was pisco Punch

Francis (2): 22:07

pisco punch

Johnny: 22:09

and he calls it the most expensive drinking. So at the time it cost a quarter. Right. That's great. Nobody told the secret how it's prepared, but it was, I know it was, the testimonies are there, the lightings, the historian, everything is there, and pisco, and he described the secret, the preparation, the fiscal punch was fico, a brandy made from. From the photo from World Warship and he takes the name from there. The testimonies are there.

Francis (2): 22:36

You know, it's funny, I remember reading about that bar and one of the things the proprietor of that bar used to do is he would take his pisco punch recipe and he would go in the back and lock the door and he would, or he'd mix it all up, and so not even his bartenders knew what was in his particular piece. Go punch. Wild stuff. Hey, listen Johnny, we need to take a quick break, but I wanna come back on the other side and talk a little bit more about Peru and Chili.

Johnny: 24:43

Sure thing.

Francis (2): 24:44

Alright, we'll be back in just a moment. You're listening to the Restaurant guys@restaurantguysradio.com. Hey there everybody. Welcome back. It's Mark and Francis, the restaurant guys. We're talking with Johnny Schuler. He is the proprietor of pisco, Porton and television personality, and probably the world's number one ambassador for Peruvian pisco. So Johnny, I, I was first drawn to your product from, some stuff you sent me by email and in the mail, uh, about the distillery that you built, down at one of the oldest distillery sites in America. In, in the Americas, we, we have one of the most modern distilleries in America. Can you tell us about what you did down there?

Johnny: 25:22

It's very, very interesting because, uh, when, when the project is actually formed by my partner, bill Calip, who's a p billionaire, who had sold this ventures here in Peru and decided he wanted to say something for the country. And decided that this was gonna be a very interesting venture and he approached D with the offer, Hey Johnny, you are the pisco expert in Per, why don't we join forces and let's go for it. And said, Hey, that's a wonderful idea. Great, so let's go. Visited most of all the, well they ask, and I visited all for my books and my TV program. when, uh, Bill says, okay, let's go, let's, let's turn forces. I have, I put, I'll be the money man. End the project. You are the one who knows how to do the product. Let's the first thing I did next day, Francis. What to come down and talk to my friend Julio Presque. Paleo who owns this beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, I mean sensual, sexy, beautiful, beautiful distillery that dated from 1684, and I had seen the documents of the purchase of the property, and that made it the oldest working distillery in all of the Americas.

Francis (2): 26:32

That's

Johnny: 26:33

awesome because we needed a real story for our product. We don't want it. We didn't want a Mickey Mouse. Makeup story to tell, Hey, we are here. We're not a new vodka. We're not a new ram. We're not a new gin. We've been here, pisco has been here for 350 years. Mm-hmm. And this distillery has been doing it right? Yep. So buying that, we bought a couple of vineyards adjacent to the property. We own four vineyards now, and then we built in it next to it, face to face. You have to connect here. It's absolutely fascinating. In front. The most modern. But what did I do? I used the philosophy of the 1684 distillery to build a new one. Everything in 1684 went done by gravity. There was no electricity, there were no pumps. And that's why the pisco was so, so, so wonderful. Right? Right. And I said, I have to replicate that. So I told my architects when we were signing this, okay, my fermenters have to go. 14 meters, 30 some feet up in the air to be able to have the heights we needed to be able to bring all the flow again by gravity. Right. Wow. So the whole brand new distillery replicates the philosophy of the old one. I call it signal artisanal.

Francis (2): 27:58

We

Johnny: 27:59

have, yeah. We're using. The best of technology. We have computers. We have, uh, our tanks, our stainless steel tanks, our jacketed for cold weather, to be able to keep the cold. So we don't have a, a high temperature during fermentation and we don't lose IC structures and everything is state of the art. But then the hand of the man, we still keep our pisco. It all, all concrete. Glass-lined tanks. We still hand harvest all our grapes. We still hand select everything. Everything is a combination of technology and the element of artisan, the love, the man, the hand-crafted beauty of pisco.

Francis (2): 28:45

So when did you build the new distillery? When was that completed?

Johnny: 28:50

The new distillery is, Steve is now under operation. So the product you have today is the 2010 in the market, yesterday morning, I've been tasting with my people within designing the. Blend for the 2011 bottling because as you know, they have another argument here that I might drive you guys crazy on your listeners. Also, as is made from wine, Mark Francis, my argument is wine changes every year, and that's why we put dates on the bottle of wine and pisco is made from wine. pisco has to change every year.

Francis (2): 29:26

I think that's amazing. I think that your commitment to that

Mark: 29:29

is amazing.

Francis (2): 29:29

I

Mark: 29:29

mean, almost every other spirit I know they, they want consistency, but what else Mo most important is consistency. And you know, and I, and I had this conversation with somebody just the other day, I, I prefer quality to consistency somehow, somehow in the McDonaldization of America. Agree. We've decided that it was better that it be the same all the time than it be great all the time.

Johnny: 29:52

Thank you. Thank you, I am against that. I don't want to be a product that is exactly the same for the next 30 years. I would be bored to death. I would have nothing else to do. My job as a distiller, master distiller would be finished. Huh? I have beautiful grapes every year and they change, and because I had more sun, left, sun, more water, less water. More cold, less cold, but drink changes.

Francis (2): 30:17

Will you date the pisco bottles? Yes. Always.

Johnny: 30:20

As a matter of fact, when you, when you see it a, a little secret code, because for some reason we can't date it in the States uhhuh, but, uh, we're working a little code in there so that, that we can, we can more or less identify the, the dates.

Francis (2): 30:32

I think that's, I think that's tremendous. so now the other thing that's really interesting, I gotta be honest with you, Johnny, you have a. You, you have a pretty forceful personality, uh, and the way that you came into the American market, uh, sort of reflects your forceful personality. I'd never heard of pisco Porton, and I think I knew just about every pisco on the market. You know, you didn't exist until a couple years ago and you guys came to us early on and, you wanted to get into our place for New Jersey, and I think that's great and we, we have, we carry your product, but. When I brought in Fpisco, I think I was the one of the first guys around, or first guys I knew of to carry it. And now I really see it everywhere you have, at least in the northeast. You know, you guys have really, how did you take such a huge piece of the market? So I believe infiltrated as you. Yeah. My god.

Johnny: 31:19

You're everywhere. Well, fortunately, uh, we have, um. Well, fortunately we do have the resources he behind the product, right? Uhhuh, which is very important. We have the resources and we have the commitment. Phil Calip is a man in love with the project, so he has, allowed a very substantial amount of mon for us to be able to pull this through. We are now in 24 states, and we launched only in March last year.

Francis (2): 31:48

Yeah,

Johnny: 31:48

right.

Francis (2): 31:49

That's right. The other thing about you, the way that you guys have marketed is Yeah, I, I see advertisements, and I see you sponsoring a lot of professional and trade events, but I, I also, I think that if the product weren't there, I think what you're doing gotta be in the bottle. Yeah. I mean, if the product weren't there, you wouldn't have, you know, people order one bottle because of some deal, uh, but they don't keep it on their back bar, you know? And, and, uh, it's, I think it's a testament to the product. That's amazing how quickly you've done it.

Johnny: 32:14

thanks. Thanks. Thanks to you guys. I mean, thanks to you guys and a lot of people that have really enjoyed and enjoyed the product and have tried it that liked it. But then again, we must be one of the spirits that have been awarded the most amount of medals Last year. We've got 22 medals last year, gold medals all over in Spain, in Canada, the state in San Francpisco, in New York, in Belgium, everywhere. So the product is good. And then we picked medal up here, down, down, down in, down in, in the regional in and eat guy in nascar. Which for me are more important because I'm competing against my peers down here. Right? Mm-hmm.

Francis (2): 32:47

Well, I'll tell you one of these days you're gonna hear an on-location broadcast from, uh, your distillery.'cause it sounds like a hey of a lot of fun

Johnny: 32:55

you guys. No, you have to come and see what we've done here. You would have so much fun. We would really, you would really enjoy it because it is really a beautiful. Mark, Francis. It is a dream. You have to see the vineyards, our commitment with nature, You know, the stillage is the wastage, right? Wine. Once we've evaporated the alcohol, right? Normally that here in Peru, all the distilleries throw into the ditches. We brought almost a million dollar investment, a plant from, from, from Holland that turns this back into water for irrigation.

Mark: 33:28

Wow. That's terrific.

Johnny: 33:29

So, so our commitment with nature is total our commitment with our social commitment, with the people that live around us. We employ everybody the closest we can to the, to the distillery, into the vineyards. We have probably about 120 people. We're not a small, small venture. We're a very, very serious. Very serious operation down here, but we have a total commitment. I'm going, you guys are gonna think this is crazy, huh? Listen to this. They call me Ggo Local down here. You know the crazy ggo, well, I've got a funny name, John. It's not a very typical name for our, for our local, right? Right. And, uh, I deal, I built some huge steel canals on top of my fermenting Cs, and everybody says, why did you put that stretcher up there? That must weigh up. Tons and tons here. It wastes tons and it costs a lot of money, but that is a system that has trip irrigation and a good vegetation up there.

Mark: 34:24

Oh, you have a green roof.

Johnny: 34:26

Crazy. so it's in the angle of each sl on the roof. There's this line of vegetation. Why? Because plants will take a CO2 from my fermentation process and change it back into oxygen. Now, I don't know if it's gonna work or not, but I thought it was a wonderful idea.

Francis (2): 34:42

Hey, and it sounds like a lot of fun. Listen, Johnny, sooner or later you'll be seeing us down in Peru. Thanks for coming on the show, Johnny.

Johnny: 34:49

Oh, my pleasure. Thank you guys for having on board Shalu Porton, and enjoy it.

Francis (2): 34:54

Salu Johnny. Johnny, Schuler is the founder and president of, uh, pisco Porton in Peru. You can find out more about him at our website, restaurant guys radio.com. Stick with us. We'll be back in just a moment. It's Mark and Francis, the restaurant guys. Hey there, everybody. Welcome back. It's Mark and Francis. you know, we have a sort of a no cell phone rule on the show, but we had to break it because he was actually in the vineyard. You

Mark: 35:52

know, that we had

Francis (2): 35:53

a,

Mark: 35:53

we had a, so it might not have been the easiest show to listen to, but, uh, he is, you know, Johnny's the most interesting man in the world. He is, by the way.

Francis (2): 36:00

The hell. You know, it's funny, I don't know if you could tell from his voice, but I bet there are a lot of women that just fell in love with him by listening to this. he's, he's a great guy and he's, he's part race, car driver race, you

Mark: 36:11

know, he, he's got all the, all the characteristics.

Francis (2): 36:13

He came and did an event, he sponsored our Dale Degra event at the restaurant where, where Dale, you know, he sponsored Dale actually. He came and, and, uh, did on the town, which was his, uh, song and dance thing at, well, no dancing. Dale did a song and dance. No, no. And uh, but he was great. I mean, I think that people were as charmed by him as they were by Dale. And, uh, and the product is great and you know, it's a category that I didn't know about until seven years ago, you know?

Mark: 36:42

Yeah. It was, it, it's, it's obviously basically, I don't wanna say new to the East coast'cause we've had it for 150 years, but, uh, but it's 300 years down there. Right. But, but basically it was a forgotten spirit. That has reemerged. Yeah. It's changed from, this kind of afterthought spirit to now it's gotta be on your back bar. Oh.

Francis (2): 37:02

And you know, I, I had not sipped, the porton I had not just didn't occurred to me that porton via sipping cocktail. And I sat with Johnny for about an hour. And we

Mark: 37:12

sipped'em. Well, I remember when we first brought pisco Porton in and we put it into our cocktails and we said, Hey, that's not great. And, and it was more because it was more intense than the other piscos it was throwing our recipes on. Right. We had a rejigger of the recipe. So we had a, we had to change everything that we wanted to use pisco porton in. We had to change the recipe because it just, it, the pisco porton was actually a little bit too intense for most of

Francis (2): 37:36

our, yeah. Wild stuff. Most of

Mark: 37:37

our

Francis (2): 37:37

Peace

Mark: 37:37

cup

Francis (2): 37:37

wild stuff. Um, but. I, I am go, I'm going to Peru. Okay. Going, because you know what, you can go down and you can, visit his vineyards, you can, you can go right across to Mendoza Valley. So I'm, I'm gonna make that a trip. Yeah. He'll do

Mark: 37:49

a little, do a little, uh, south American.

Francis (2): 37:52

It's a cool thing. What they're doing down there is cool, and how they resurrected an old tradition is what we really like, which is probably why we had'em on the show. I hope you guys have enjoyed this hour as much as we certainly have. I'm Francis Shock. And I'm Mark Pascal. We are the restaurant guys@restaurantguysradio.com.