While you might have heard of the Spirit Pisco, there's a fair chance that you don't really know a lot.
Sure, you might know that Pisco is basically a young brandy. You might even know that it's mainly produced in Peru or Chile. 

But you probably didn't know that there are eight approved grape varietals that range in taste from pepper and smoke to almond and roasted walnut. 

You also probably didn't know that there are five different Pisco growing regions with 42 valleys and over 500 producers, most of whom are small batch. 

And in the midst of all that liquid is the Peruvian Pisco brand Suyo that aims to help you understand a little more about what Pisco can offer. 

To find out more, we talked to Alex Hildebrandt and Ian Leggett from Suyo about small batch producers, grape varietals, and creating an impact in the US market.
Gentlemen, thank you for joining us.

Ian Leggett (01:44):
Thanks, Tiff, great meeting you.

Alex Hildebrandt (01:46):
Thanks for having us.

Tiff Christie (01:48):
Now, you describe Pisco as being more versatile than tequila. What do you mean by that?

Alex Hildebrandt (01:55):
Sure. I'll take a first stab at that one. Any comments about tequila I think are often rooted in the fact that I live in the US currently, and tequila is one of the, the, the booming spirits currently and that people are really understanding. So it's often helpful to anchor people to that spirit, at least here in the us. And it's a decent comparable spirit because it, it shares a lot of characteristics, but in our view, we find it to be more approachable when we're doing blind tastings when people first encounter the spirit. And we just find that it lends itself to a, a wider array of cocktails than, than tequila tends to do. So it's smooth enough, for instance, to have in a martini or drink neat, of course, which is how we prefer it. Yet it has enough complexity and, and variation between the different grape varieties to be able to enjoy on its own or to replace tequila in a margarita or a mixed drink, for instance. We just think it's gonna give you a bit more of a distinctive taste. So that's kind of what we mean by that. When we when we talk about any comparisons of, of tequila or any other agave spirits for that matter,

Tiff Christie (03:02):
I suppose there's been a lot of education that you guys have had to do and basing it on something that is so well known in the US like tequila is a good starting point.

Alex Hildebrandt (03:14):
Absolutely. And we sort of talk about this ad nauseum, how important education is for what we're trying to do. Really, our perspective is that before we, we do any type of tasting about studio specifically or any brand awareness campaigns, everything that we do has to lead with education about the category because Pisco still is such a relatively nascent category outside of Peru. Anytime we're encountering a a consumer, we want to make sure we ask the question first. Are you familiar with Pisco? Help understand what they know and what they don't know and and perhaps even get out in front of any misconceptions. There may be. A lot of times people haven't heard about it outside of the Pisco Sour context. So we want to make sure that they're calibrated to what it comes from. It's made from grapes. It's 100% distilled grapes. It's a single distilled spirit unaged, it's going to be clear. It comes from Peru. It's a denomination of origin product, all all of these things. So absolutely education, just like with any other category that came before us. Take mezcal most recently, tequila before that really any category that's that's grown over the past several decades has had these enormous education campaigns. So we, we need to do very, very similar things to make sure that consumers are, are are, are familiar with the product.

Ian Leggett (04:33):
Yeah. And to, to that, I'd also add that because it's made out of grapes, it shares some similarities to how you could drink a wine. Right? And with wines, you have a broad spectrum of flavours based on the grapes and also where they're harvested. With pisco, you have the same thing. You have eight grapes as, as you mentioned, to harvested in five different regions and 42 plus valleys. This provides an enormous spectrum of flavours that make it super versatile, you know, so if you're talking about cocktails one grape flavour from one region might lend itself better to one type of cocktail, and then another one from another region might lend itself better to another cocktail. So that's the beauty of Piscos. You have this large pallet of flavours to work with. At the same time,

Tiff Christie (05:25):
I'm sure people don't realize how broad the category is. I assume they look at it the way you might look at vodka and think it's a single entity that is exactly the same no matter where in the region it comes from. How difficult is it then to try and communicate that to people? Right. That it's almost similar, I suppose, to the difference of whiskeys.

Ian Leggett (05:51):
Yeah, exactly. And it's something that Alex and I constantly talk about, right? It's right now we're, we're at a time where standard or standardization is viewed as a, well, it's, it's increasingly viewed less in less positive light. But we're coming out of a time where standardization was something good. You know, consumers wanted to know that every single batch would taste exactly the same. And that gave way for all the industrialized types of spirits that taste exactly the same batch after batch. With Pisco, it’s very tough to standardize because you're dealing with harvest years and each year will taste different, and you're dealing with different vineyards, and each vineyard tastes different, much like in wine, right? So yes, while there's a lot of analogs that are are drawn or, or people instantly see a clear spirit and think about clear tequila, vodka and gin, I think there's a lot that can be explored through peace skill. But as Alex mentioned earlier, you have to start with education. You have to start telling people why Pisco is different, why it's beautiful, and what can be done with it.

Alex Hildebrandt (07:03):
If I was just gonna add to that, that to your, your question about the, the, the different varieties. We imagine a world where you can walk into a bar and see more than one type of Pisco, of course, but perhaps all eight different available, available grape varieties we live in, in a world now where you can walk into particular here in the US and South America as well, and Lima, where Ian is. And of course all across Europe, as I've seen, you can see dozens of different types of brands, certainly of tequila, whether they be blancos sort of pos. And then you get into the mezcals and you, you know, there are 30 plus I think, different types of agaves you can make mezcal with. And you, you may find at least here in the US a a dozen of them at, at the bar.

(07:52):
So we, we just feel like there's room for more than one Pisco. And currently when you walk in the to a bar, the consumer doesn't have many options. So that, that's part of why I think there's a misunderstanding of what the allowable varieties are, because there's only one that's available to them. So they may just think Pisco is, Pisco is Pisco, and the reality is there's eight different very distinct grapes you can use that come from different regions around the country. And you know, we'd have to obviously delicately think about how we're positioning that because you don't want to overwhelm the consumer. But certainly it's, it's slow, slowly but surely. But we have to make sure that one day a consumer walks into a bar and has more than one option, because that, that's how we will know we succeeded. When you order a Pisco and they say, okay, what kind of Pisco would you like? And the consumer can now take it in different directions, we're not there yet.

Tiff Christie (08:38):
But speaking of that, within your brand, so you, you describe it as a Pisco discovery initiative. Why is it so important to highlight the small batch Pisco producers?

Alex Hildebrandt (08:55):
We found that just a super quick maybe backstory. Ian and I are, are Peruvians and he and I connected several years ago in the US over simply the fact that we are both Peruvian. We met at a, at our former employer, and we became friends and we for, for several years talked about working on a project together that helped connect both of our countries both Peru and the us. And it was a concept that existed for several years, and then Suyo ended up becoming the vehicle for that concept. So in, in, in about 2019, I was back visiting Peru and I was chatting with Ian, and then it came up very organically while we were drinking at Capita in, in Lima, the capital city. We started doing a lot of research. I took several trips back because I live in the US now.

(09:45):
And we just decided, we, we've realized fairly quickly in the process that there are over 500 producers in, in Peru who are making Pisco legally part of the denomination of origin. Yet so few of them have access to the capital city in Peru, let alone outside of the country. If you go into, you know, any bar in the US where I live, you may find one or two brands and some of the major cities, you may find three or four brands elsewhere around the world. It's even more scarce. So it's very challenging for these producers to get access to the market, and we truthfully felt like the best Pisco that we were finding was in these very remote regions from producers who simply don't have the commercialization expertise or the capital to, to, to get their product outside of their villages, if that's what they desire.

(10:33):
So what we decided to do was set up a platform called soo and, and a collaborative of producers whereby we serve as the, the platform that they can present their Pisco on. So we're very transparent about where the every single batch comes from, the name of the producer, all of the different characteristics that make each Pisco unique the, the terroir, if you will, if you will, which is a, a concept that we know is, is very, very overused in this industry, but we feel it encapsulates perfectly exactly what we're trying to do because it is made from grapes, and it's a single distilled, distilled two-spirit product. It's a very piece goes a very, very terroir driven spirit. So we decided that we want to, it could, there's more soul in us teaming up with producers and doing this revenue share that we do, then simply just going and slapping a private label on a bottle and trying to commercialize it.

(11:23):
We, we weren't passionate about that. So we instead embarked on this really, really long journey that's taken several years to establish relationships with our producers, make sure that we're aligned in our vision, we give money back to them and provide advisory expertise via consultants that we hire in Peru. And we want to help them grow their vineyard and improve practices together so that we can grow the category together. But the Pisco Discovery initiative, I, I'd say simplistically speaking is simply meant to really describe what Ian and I do, is we get in his car and we drive around the country and we meet new producers. That's how it all started. Thankfully now, because we're four or so years into the process, we have so many connections that it's a little bit easier, but at the core of everything we do, it's literally Alex and Ian just going out and discovering and finding new produ producers, creating amazing, hopefully lifelong relationships. And at the same time, we want consumers to be able to discover something new via our product via Suyo.

Tiff Christie (12:22):
Now, you've brought out two varietals so far, and they are both based on different grapes on that idea of you would like people to be able to walk into a bar and see Pisco of all grape, all eight grape varietals displayed there. Is that the future of the brand that you will bring out all eight grape varietals?

Ian Leggett (12:48):
I think it's something that we are considering, but not in the short term. The risk of bringing too many varietals too quickly into the market is that you risk confusing consumers. And I would rather first establish Pisco as a category and have what we call our two goalposts, right? You have Theta and Thelia, which shows the ends of the spectrum in terms of flavor. Theta is has less of a bouquet. It's a little bit drier on the nose and has a more, a stronger body. Thelia is more aromatic has floral and citrusy notes, and it's more delicate in the body. So that already anchors consumers to the spectrum of flavors. And then between those two, we want to release different varietals that are unique expressions, right? So we, we've been constantly thinking of going into vineyards that are at elevated altitudes or vineyards at the extremes of the denomination of origin, and also explore the Piscos by geography. But that might not necessarily encapsulate all eight grapes. Ideally, that's the future we envision. It's just a matter of when.

Tiff Christie (14:00):
So your expressions will be about the producers more than the varietals?

Ian Leggett (14:08):
Yep. To, to some extent. And partnering, always making sure that we have the range of flavors across the producers. We're not all solely going to focus on one grape varietal across all producers. We want to we want to you to serve as a, as a platform where consumers can also learn about the different grape varietals and terroirs. But if, if we don't find a grape varietal from a producer that we're passionate about, we might not release it until later on. So I think it's it's, it's a process that built on itself

Alex Hildebrandt (14:40):
And every step of the way, we have to make sure that we're very tactful about the way that we're introducing them, because you run the risk of creating marketplace confusion when you introduce too much of something new at or around the same time. So we, we constantly grapple with that sort of . It's a delicate balance that we try to continue to play as to, we have so many fun new things that we try and we want to introduce, but we simply can't throw too many things at the consumer and risk that they lose. They, they sort of lose track of the differences between the few. So that is our long-term vision, but step by step we want, we continue to figure out what's the best, best way to introduce new varietals.

Tiff Christie (15:25):
How do you judge that?

Ian Leggett (15:28):
There's a series of filters that we use for us in the center of everything is the relationship with the producer, right? So we first evaluate who we want to work with. We look at every relationship as a long-term relationship. So we want to make sure that producers are aligned in our vision and where they want to, where they want BCO to get to in the future. And we essentially want to ensure sustainable relationship, right? We want to make sure that the producers are passionate about their Pisco, keep producing good product, keep supplying good product, and that way we can keep giving the customers good product. So that's in the center of everything is that human component. The next filter, of course is, is taste organoleptic. So we always evaluate the, the piece goes from a producer. They might have different years of the same grip and we evaluate all of them, and then we, we rank them in order of priority that we want to release into the market, right?

(16:24):
Maybe there's a few years that require a little bit more resting or a little bit more oxygenation. So we let those rest, and then there's a few that are already ready, and those are the ones we launch. And then the final and, and last step is a chemical analysis. So we put all of the Pisco samples that we send to the us for example, through a gas spectroscopy. So we make sure that the, the components within the Pisco line up with what the do requires. So for example, the do requires that certain volatile compounds fall within certain ranges, and that is critical because if it falls outside of those ranges, it no longer should be denominated Pisco. It should be just called grape dist distillate, right? So that's also very critical.

Tiff Christie (17:11):
You've talked about terroir. How distinctive is the terroir from one region of Peru to the other?

Ian Leggett (17:22):
So Peru is actually one of the most biodiverse climates in the world. We have I want to say upwards of 80% of all microclimates, and I'm talking across Peru, right? Peace was only grown in the coast which in itself has several climates. So you can you can go an hour from Lima and you'll get this humid, semi arid climate. Then you go a couple hours from Lima and you get this, this desert climate with a lot of sun. And as you move into the valleys, which increase altitudes, the climate starts changing based on the altitude. So for example, right now we work with two vineyards, one that is really, really close to the ocean, and this vineyard isn't protected by any mountain range or any trees or anything. So it receives constant wind from the ocean. And this mineral breeds does a couple of things.

(18:19):
One, it cools the grapes by cooling the grapes, it, it enhances the acidity and the grapes. So it, it maintains the grapes a little bit cooler so the, the sugar content doesn't spike. And on the other side, it's being ocean breeze. It provides minerals into the grapes of the skins, which are subsequently carried through into the def fermentation and distillation process. So you end up with a Pisco that's dried as a mineral notes, and I particularly love that Pisco based on its nuanced flavors that are more towards the mineral side. The other vineyard that we work with, it's nestled in the valley of mallets about 11 kilometers inwards from the other vineyard, and it starts receiving some protection from the mountain ranges from the Andes. So that does a couple things. It's, it shelters it from the ocean wind, so it no longer has this effect as much of the cooling effect or, or the ocean breeze. And it also limits the amount of sun exposure because you have a mountain ranges to the sides. So you end up having grapes that are a little bit smaller, but have a, a bit more concentrated sugar in them. As a result. The piece goes a little bit sweeter. It has notes of compo and it, it has a totally different profile, right? Coast versus mountain, and that's in one valley. So go to the next valley. Things change entirely.

Tiff Christie (19:46):
Now, explain one thing to me. If you are working with small producers, does that mean that ultimately each expression becomes a limited addition?

Ian Leggett (19:59):
Yes. Yeah. Not only because we work with different producers, but because it's much like wine, for example, each, if, if you think about small vineyard wines, each release of the wine is a limited edition because each year there will be subtle changes to the wine, right? So that happens with the producers we work with. A 2020 edition might be different than the 2021 edition in a single vineyard. And on top of that, we also work with multiple producers. So we try to maintain a long-term relationship with these producers. But the Pisco from one producer will be different than the Pisco from another producer and will always work with small batch producers trying to keep quantity small and and limited to that extent. So we'll never mix grapes or vineyards.

Alex Hildebrandt (20:53):
And this is a key point that we, we feel has been a, a little bit lost in, in the messaging the Pisco category historically, that even the largest producers in theory have vintages. So, as Ian was just describing, just like a wine, their 2018 is gonna taste differently than their 2022, simply because you have to work with the, the grapes that the harvest provided you, and you can't dilute it with water, and you cannot age it. So I, I think there's an opportunity here to make sure that consumers understand that fact and appreciate the distinctiveness that exists within each batch. Whereas I think historically, a lot of the, the Pisco presentation of the category has been trying to present it as if it's any other spirit when that's, that's not the reality. And I think we have a really, really beautiful part about this, that the denomination of origin has really provided us, that it creates us a set of guidelines that requires that we end up what, what is ultimately the, the purest the purest, purest expression of the raw material and distillate form. That's what the denomination of origin requires that we make. And so many producers are making this, I just don't think they're really leaning into this concept of terroir as much as we feel that it should be to allow consumers to appreciate it the most.

Tiff Christie (22:13):
When you start looking at the grape varietals and the terroir and the years that it's produced and things like, that's an enormous amount on your shoulders to try and communicate to a public that doesn't know a lot about it to start with, it is almost overwhelming

Alex Hildebrandt (22:35):
, very much so. Very, very much so. Part of why we believe that this is not something we, we can do ourselves, and we try our best, and we'll continue to try our best to make sure that we're teaming up with other Pisco producers, other brands, to help us with this massive, massive lift of educating consumers. It's not helpful to the GA category, in our opinion, to just keep trying to get bottles out there to make more Pisco Sours, which is a beautiful spirit. But I think we need to work a little bit harder to make sure consumers understand what it is that they're tasting. And we, we can't do it alone. So we're figuring it out as, as we progress, obviously through this, there are a lot of different commercialization activities that we want to embark on that we haven't yet, and that we have started on. But it, it's, it's a team effort. It will always be a team effort. We overuse this phrase all the time, but we truly believe the rising tide raises all ships. So if Pisco producers can work together, we believe that we can accomplish something really great.

Tiff Christie (23:40):
You mentioned Pisco Sour. That is a cocktail that has had an impact in the US market and also the Chicano, but I imagine that you believe this spirit can do so much more behind the bar.

Ian Leggett (23:58):
Yeah. I think Pisco is, is one of the most versatile spirits out there. It's anchored, and it, to a certain extent has been hiding behind the Pisco Sour, which I particularly love. But I also think it has way more potential than just being part of Pisco Sour or Chicano. For example, my favorite cocktail is a a riff on the Manhattan, right? It's Pisco and for Moth and Sweet ver and, and it's, it's amazing. It's such a simple cocktail that, and sweet or tart ingredients. It's just a mix of two well, well developed products, and you get an amazing, amazing cocktail. So that's part of what we're also trying to do, is educate not only on what Pisco is, but how you could use it, right? And, and make that link. And the consumer said that if you have your favourite cocktail, call it a margarita, call it a gin tonic, try swapping out the spirit for some Pisco and you'll be surprised. And I think that's one of the key things people need to realise. It's, it's versatility.

Tiff Christie (25:06):
If people are not necessarily going with classic cocktails and just doing swap outs, if they're almost trying from scratch, what sort of flavours work well with the liquid?

Ian Leggett (25:17):
Oh, caveat is saying that it depends on the Pisco, right? You have so many different flavors on the Pisco. But to put it in simple terms, I, I would suggest if a consumer's starting to experiment with Pisco, try to go for more of the more of the citrus floral ingredients. So I, I would definitely put citrus fruit in it. Tropical fruits, pineapple goes really well. Lemon goes really well. It also goes really well with Ginger, for example, Incan is basically ginger oil and Pisco. So anything that you can do to highlight the floral citrus notes of Italicus, for example, would go really, really nicely with a Pisco. Alex, you might have something to add there.

Alex Hildebrandt (25:58):
Yeah, I would just emphasize simplicity in how we're trying to position cocktails. Of course, the world of mixology is an amazing and can be sometimes complex and unapproachable to some people. It's definitely an amazing thing, and we love watching mixologists work with it and make these really, really exquisite cocktails. But for the at-home consumer, we want to make sure that peace go is very approachable. So it's sort of a balance of, you know, bartenders are your best salespeople. We want to make sure that they're presenting it to consumers at the bar and these really amazing cocktails while at the same time make sure that people understand that. Just like pick your favourite spirit that you have sitting at the bar on the bar cart at home. You can, you can make a Manhattan riff a capita.

(26:45):
You can make a Pisco Rita if you wanted to. You can make a Pisco martini instead of vodka. You know, you can make an old fashioned instead of whiskey use Pisco. There's so many different things, and we want to make sure that take a pisco sour, for instance. Yes, amazing cocktail. Really, really fun to go out and order one, sometimes you may not want to make one at home, may not want to have to mess with making the egg white, and that's okay. Well, here's a simple cocktail for you. So it's making sure that we're making it approachable to people, which is part of why we lean on the classics quite a bit.

Tiff Christie (27:17):
You mentioned earlier the profit share on the bottles. Tell us how that works.

Alex Hildebrandt (27:23):
Yeah, of course. So again, because we're, we're so new, this is something that is still continuing to evolve, but what we do is a direct revenue share with each of our producers. So there are profit shares that exist in this world, and there are revenue shares. And without getting into the specifics revenue share is simply a more transparent, in our opinion, way to spread the, the, the, the wealth of what this business has created, which today is, is not much, of course, because we're still growing. But, you know, you can, you can sort of fudge profit any way that you want and say that you're sharing that with your producers. We want to be more transparent and use a top line number. And then we cut a check at the end of each year to each of our producers based on volume that they sold.

(28:06):
So we were able to cut a check at the end of 2021, like it's beginning of 2022, once the year ended, to the one producer whose batch we had in the market that year, this year will be able to do that same thing with two producers, which we'll be really fun and we're excited about. And the idea is that they reinvest it in their vineyards, hopefully, but it's ultimately up to their discretion. So we already provide, as I mentioned, consulting services with them. Ian works very closely with a couple different consultants, go to the vineyard and test the soil and make sure that they're doing things in a way that are really helping them maximize their yield and, and make the processes, I guess as optimal as possible. But on top of that, we're giving them dollars that go right into their pockets, that if they want to buy new equipment, if they want to pay, give it to their people.

(28:53):
If they want to take everyone out to lunch every day, you know, it, it's totally up to their discretion. But the idea is that we grow the category together and we want them to feel like they're, they're part of this because they are, they are the main people we actually want to focus on. So there's kind of two components. We, we pay them what we believe to be well above market prices for their Pisco, because we have spent so much time meeting with producers in the market, but then also we do a direct revenue share where we dollars off of every single bottle go, go right back to them. No , no, no funny business on the numbers that you sometimes get with the profit share.

Tiff Christie (29:29):
You mentioned that last year there was one producer that you were paying, and this year there will be two. Does that mean that there will be an expression every year and hence that number of producers will increase every year?

Ian Leggett (29:45):
Yeah, the, the idea with our model Tiff is that we want to keep it to a certain extent, decentralized. And we never want to produce more than what the markets requires, right? Because then you can run the risk of overcommitting to producers, and that's not great for anyone. So what we, what we do is we gauge how the market is reacting based on that. We start relationships with different producers. We have producers who will, who we already want to work with. It's just a matter of when I, I would love to bring on a new producer or multiple producers in a year. I think that will be the case in the future. It's just a matter of when the market is ready for that. But, but yeah, we're very cautious in setting promises that the market might not be ready for. So we, we always like maintaining ultimate transparency with our producers.

Alex Hildebrandt (30:42):
And I would just add to that very quickly. We, we have long-term agreements. We, we establish long-term agreements with our producers. So the last thing we want to do is commit to purchasing an entire year's harvest. And we want to do this in, in, in advance several years. Last thing we want to do is commit to purchasing from, from them and that not be able to purchase it because we have too many other products in the market that we haven't been able to sell. So we have to make sure that demand is helping us grow our relationships at the same time.

Tiff Christie (31:14):
Now, speaking of that market, the US market is not the easiest for any brand to walk into because it's basically 50 different countries. I imagine it has required a fair amount of strategy on your part.

Alex Hildebrandt (31:31):
I guess I would say it's been unique for us because Ian and I don't come from this industry. So in a sense at the beginning we, we kind of had this feeling of we're coming in bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and we're gonna disrupt this thing. There's no way it can be this complicated. Then of course, just like everyone else, you realize, wow, this is very, very complicated. . So our focus has been growing relationships organically. A again, because we are so new to this, we, we've had the luxury of being able to patiently grow this business. So we didn't go outside and raise capital, for instance, and spend millions of dollars to build a business. Instead, Ian and I chose to organically do this ourselves, bootstrap our business, learn the market, spend as much time as we possibly can on the road, meeting bartenders, liquor store owners, industry professionals, gauging what they like, gauging challenges that they've seen in the market, things that we feel we can do differently to help that.

(32:35):
And really just learning at that while we're growing. So it wasn't like we had a strategy at the beginning that we're executing on. Thankfully we've, we've learned a lot and we are starting to form much more specific strategies, but there's no cookie, cookie cutter solution to any of this. So our focus to try to be more specific has been specifically on the east. Cuz I live on the east coast. I spend a lot of time in New York meeting with bar programs and liquor stores that have a focus on more innovative spirits and cocktail making, and really programs that end up being trendsetters in the industry. That's where we want to focus most of our time because these these folks are very influential in the industry. They're gonna potentially go start their own programs. They're gonna be very influential on Instagram. They're going to be on podcasts just like this. And so, so that's where we've been focusing most of our efforts to date. And it's just been Ian and myself truthfully. So as we grow, we're gonna have to build our team, which will be fun, and we want to continue to focus on these what I would consider really high profile accounts. And then hopefully it sort of trickles down the education trickles down into other areas as well.

Ian Leggett (33:47):
Yeah, and to that, I, I would add that our center strategy is always keeping things very organic and human. We, we don't believe in the method of just throw money at it, at it'll grow. We think that particularly in this industry, which is a very social industry, you need to create that human connection. And it's, it's the one thing that Alex and I love doing. It's just meeting new people, getting to know new people in the industry and learning from them. And I think that's core to, to everything. And it'll eventually lead to sales. You know, it's I I think it needs to go through that route, which is a little bit less invasive, less aggressive than maybe the traditional approach, but it's the, the way that resonates the most with us.

Alex Hildebrandt (34:35):
And, and I would just k keep in mind Tiff, you know this better than we do. I'm sure category growth takes a very, very long time, and that's what we're most focused on. Soo growth of course, comes with that as well, but it's about category growth and no category was really created overnight or even grown significantly in, in a matter of a year or two. This takes a very long time, and it's about, we're elevating a category while at the same time building relationships. And hopefully these relationships are seeing what we're seeing. Hopefully these people are more likely to now go get on a flight to visit Peru and understand the beauty of what this is. Just like they are today willing to hop on a flight and go to Oaxaca to visit a pake mezcal paque, or they to go to Lesco to visit tequila.

(35:24):
These are all very common things in the bartender community today. We want to create a world where it's very common to get on a flight visit, visit Lima, Peru to enjoy the gastronomy, and then drive a couple hours south to visit the epicenter of Pisco production and then start exploring different regions. You know, there's, there's so much beauty that we feel like hasn't really been un uncovered, unfortunately outside of Peru. And thankfully gastronomy, cuz I referenced it, it actually has helped considerably for that Peruvian food has become very, very well known on a global scale over the past several years. So we feel like we can help, help ride the coattails of that as well.

Tiff Christie (35:59):
If people would like more information, they can of course go to your website, which is sue pisco.com or connect with the brand via your socials.

Alex Hildebrandt (36:12):
Yeah, please do. And I would just add Ian and I are very open and transparent about everything we love hearing from, from people. So feel free to email us both anytime, alex Suyo pisco.com or ian Suyo pisco.com DM us on Instagram. It's always Ian or myself responding directly to that. Shoot us shoot us a note on, on any platform. We're always there. And then you can also buy a bottle on our website if that's of interest as well.

Tiff Christie (36:43):
Where can people find it? I mean, the normal entry is New York, Florida, California. Is that the road you've taken?

Alex Hildebrandt (36:52):
Two of the three? Yes. We Florida is a high priority for us in 2023. We are not in Florida yet. We work with the distributor who gave us access to New York and California. So that's where we focused our efforts so far in 20 22, 20 23 via a different distributor. We will be looking into Florida, but you're right, those are the high profile markets. New York liquor stores, bars, restaurants all, all of those locations are available on our website. If you go to soo pisco.com, find us or you can in California as well. Same deal. You can look on the map and you can see pri primarily San Francisco and Los Angeles to date, but we're continuously growing, so hopefully that builds. And then if you live somewhere else, go to our website and you can buy now. We partnered with a liquor store in New York to have access to all 50 states and then unfortunately we don't have a great way to send to foreign markets yet. But that's all, all good things to come. We want to make sure that everyone who wants to try it has, has access to it. We just haven't, haven't been able to tackle Europe yet, for instance.

Tiff Christie (37:57):
Alright, well look, thank you both for taking the time to speak with us today.

Alex Hildebrandt (38:02):
Thank you Tiff. This was really fun. We enjoyed the conversation and happy to do this anytime. Thank you.

Ian Leggett (38:12):
Thanks Tiff. It was great chatting.