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El Gobernador Pisco
About El Gobernador Pisco
El Gobernador Pisco is produced by Miguel Torres Chile – a Curicó, Chile based winery founded by Spanish founder Miguel Torres in 1979. In addition to several wine varieties, they also produce this pisco, which is a form of brandy.
This particular bottle of El Gobernador Pisco was first launched in 2012, and is created with Muscat of Alexandria grapes from Limarí Valley. It is distilled only once to preserve the aromas.
Bottle Specs
❖ ABV: 40%
❖ Distillery: Miguel Torres Chile
❖ Aging: N/A
❖ Price Point: lower moderate price
My Tasting notes
I took a whiff of this pisco, and the aroma was fresh with notes of sweet grape. It was a very straightforward and classic pisco aroma.
My first sip had a bit of bite to it, with notes of grape in the background. Though the alcohol did mellow out over time, I found that the grape flavor also faded over time. In the end, it tasted a bit watery compared to other piscos I have tried.
Cocktail
For my drink, I really wanted to make Chile’s national cocktail: the Pisco Sour!
I’ll confess – when I make this drink at home, I typically skip the egg white, as I’m just too sensitive to the smell of egg. It’s only out of pure laziness that I don’t replace the egg white with a good vegan alternative. Until now, that is! I’ve heard that aquafaba is one of the best alternatives for egg whites in cocktails, so I’ll be trying it out here for the first time.
To get my aquafaba, I simply bought a can of chickpeas, and strained out the liquid into a squeeze bottle.
Vegan Pisco Sour
Ingredients
- 2oz Pisco
- 3/4oz lime juice
- 3/4oz simple syrup
- 1/2oz aquafaba
- 3 drops angostura bitters*
Instructions
- Add the pisco, aquafaba, lime juice, and simple syrup into the larger shaker tin
- Seal the shaker, and dry shake (no ice) for 10 seconds.
- Add ice (preferably 1 large block) to the shaker, and shake the mixture until chilled
- Strain the mixture into a glass.
- Top the foam with 3 drops of angostura bitters as a garnish
Notes
*As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Inside of a cocktail, this pisco was very smooth. The grape notes were tasty, but overall more subtle that I wanted and expected.
As far as the aquafaba, I really enjoyed the slight earthiness that it brought to the recipe. I think it complemented the grape and lime notes very well, and made a nice amount of foam.
Bottom Line
RATING: 2/5
At the end of the day, I wasn’t too impressed with El Gobernador Pisco. Although it’s a perfectly acceptable mixing spirit, I admit I was a little bored by it during my tasting. As I mentioned above, the grape flavor felt a bit watered down. The alcohol was pretty smooth in a cocktail, but still not as smooth as the other two piscos I have reviewed on the blog so far. It’s simply hard to recommend this bottle of El Gobernador when Alto del Carmen impressed me more at a lower price point.
As far as the winery/distillery itself, I am admittedly a little uneasy about the timeline of the estate’s purchase during the height of political unrest in Chile, given that they were the first foreign wine company in the nation. I simply have questions about this that may forever go unanswered. However, I do appreciate the current ownership’s efforts to support biodiversity in their grapes, and use local varieties of grapes where possible. I think it’s a step in the right direction. That said, this particular bottle of Pisco uses the Muscat of Alexandria grape, which is local to northern Africa and parts of the Mediterranean region – not to Chile.
Ultimately, El Gobernador Pisco is my least favorite pisco so far, and I cannot recommend it at this time.
As always, drink responsibly.
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