In 2001 Diego Loret de Mola acquired Bodega San Isidro and launched a brand with the intention of taking it to all the world’s best bars, hence the name. So it’s no wonder that this is the fifth year in a row Barsol has topped the list – and with 33% of the first choice votes, the Ica Valley-based brand was more than twice as popular as the next best.
Despite the gulf between the top two, Chilean pisco El Gobernador has reason to celebrate. The brand has taken second spot for the first time, having risen consistently through the ranks from 10th in 2018. It’s fair to say, however, that the Limarí Valley pisco is the leader of the pack behind Barsol, with just 6% of the total votes separating the four other brands.
The bestselling list also suggests that young brands have just as much appeal to the world’s best bars as more historical ones. Macchu Pisco was founded in 2006 and has been a regular fixture at the top end of the Brands Report. Its average position over the past four years is third, where it falls in 2021, and El Gobernador was only launched in 2017. In the top trending list is Chilean brand Waqar, which launched in 2011 in the ancient town of Tulahuén at the foothills of the Andes.
Although the progress of El Gobernador is promising for Chilean pisco, it is the only one in the top half of the bestselling list as the export-focused Peruvian producers maintain their imposing presence in the global on-trade. World’s 50 Best Bar Carnaval in Lima will have favoured Peruvian piscos with the ongoing trend towards using local produce, but it’s only the brands with the distribution power to supply bars in different continents that can become regulars in the industry’s top watering holes.
Methodology
The results of this report are the culmination of a questionnaire of 106 bars around the world, each cherry-picked to take part based on their performance in global bar awards. We aim to find out not only which brands sell best but also what’s trending. These two data sets give us an insight into the brands that are doing the most volume and the brands that are hot right now.
To read more on the methodology of the Brands Report click here.
