Pretty, chestnut blonde Melanie Asher (at right), who even as a child was intrigued by running a business, had a plan she eventually developed as her coursework project at Harvard Business School. She also had a sister, pretty, brunette Lizzie, just out of Harvard Law School. Together they are a dynamite combo, and Melanie’s plan is working just fine, thank you.
The pair, who have a Peruvian mother and spent their childhood in Peru, moved to the Washington area in the 1980s. Observing U.S. life, Melanie saw one definite lack: “There’s not enough Peruvian pisco here,” she thought, referring to the distilled grape brandy that is Peru’s national drink.
So, following the classic business principle of finding a need and filling it, she put her plan under way. She founded a brand, whimsically named Macchu Pisco, after Machu Picchu, Peru’s main tourist attraction, adding an extra “c” to Machu for luck.
Clear, diamond-bright pisco is classed as a “white liquor,” like vodka, and it shares the happy quality of being hangover-free. For over 500 years, pisco has been made from the juice of grapes grown around the Peruvian towns of Pisco and Ica, where Macchu Pisco is distilled.
“Nothing is added,” says Melanie. “It is unique because it comes directly from the grape to you.”
Macchu Pisco is a remarkably smooth drink, and her company’s superpremium pisco blend, La Diablada, is a silken delight. (Peruvians disdain the pisco made in Chile, which they consider an imitation. Produced differently, the Chilean version has caused some friction between the two countries.)
Pisco punch and pisco sours are classic ways to drink pisco, but the liquor can enhance many other drinks. You can find a Pisco Alejandro--a variation on a Brandy Alexander--at Georgetown’s Four Seasons, and at PX in Alexandria, Todd Thrasher mixes the ultimate pisco sour of fresh-squeezed lime juice and pisco, as well as other pisco quaffs he has invented.
With Melanie handling the business dealings, Lizzie the legal issues, and both of them promoting it, the young business is really taking off.
Lizzie, who now works out of New York, was recently married in Antigua, Guatemala, with a contingent of 150 international friends, industry pals and members of the D.C. party set flying in. The wedding was so spectacular, you can read about it in the current issue of Elle.
And guess what! Everyone drank Macchu Pisco.
The pair, who have a Peruvian mother and spent their childhood in Peru, moved to the Washington area in the 1980s. Observing U.S. life, Melanie saw one definite lack: “There’s not enough Peruvian pisco here,” she thought, referring to the distilled grape brandy that is Peru’s national drink.
So, following the classic business principle of finding a need and filling it, she put her plan under way. She founded a brand, whimsically named Macchu Pisco, after Machu Picchu, Peru’s main tourist attraction, adding an extra “c” to Machu for luck.
Clear, diamond-bright pisco is classed as a “white liquor,” like vodka, and it shares the happy quality of being hangover-free. For over 500 years, pisco has been made from the juice of grapes grown around the Peruvian towns of Pisco and Ica, where Macchu Pisco is distilled.
“Nothing is added,” says Melanie. “It is unique because it comes directly from the grape to you.”
Macchu Pisco is a remarkably smooth drink, and her company’s superpremium pisco blend, La Diablada, is a silken delight. (Peruvians disdain the pisco made in Chile, which they consider an imitation. Produced differently, the Chilean version has caused some friction between the two countries.)
Pisco punch and pisco sours are classic ways to drink pisco, but the liquor can enhance many other drinks. You can find a Pisco Alejandro--a variation on a Brandy Alexander--at Georgetown’s Four Seasons, and at PX in Alexandria, Todd Thrasher mixes the ultimate pisco sour of fresh-squeezed lime juice and pisco, as well as other pisco quaffs he has invented.
With Melanie handling the business dealings, Lizzie the legal issues, and both of them promoting it, the young business is really taking off.
Lizzie, who now works out of New York, was recently married in Antigua, Guatemala, with a contingent of 150 international friends, industry pals and members of the D.C. party set flying in. The wedding was so spectacular, you can read about it in the current issue of Elle.
And guess what! Everyone drank Macchu Pisco.
