Don César is a family-owned brand of pisco from Tacna, located in the southernmost district of Peru near the Chilean border. Don César produces single-varietal pisco, called pisco puro, from a highly aromatic grape, Italia, as well as
Don César Alejandro Chiarella Arce and his wife, Violeta Yacub de Chiarella, founded Bodega San Antonio in 1982. Their son and current manager, Cesar Antonio Chiarella Yacub, recounted the story of the bodega’s creation in a 2007 interview. In 1981, Yacub recounted, a visiting friend from Yugoslavia named Giovanni Terlevick saw that the Chiarellas had negra criolla grapes on their table at home as well as a small still kept for decoration in their Rancho San Antonio restaurant, where he had eaten lunch. Realizing that they had all the component parts to complete both fermentation and distillation, Giovanni asked the elder César to try a run. The next day he did. Under advisement from a local producer and friend, Don Pedro Liendo Potales, Don César implemented a full distillery, and the brand Don César was born. Don César was one of the first artisanal Peruvian piscos to appear in the American market and helped pave the way for many others.
See Regan, Gary; pisco; and Pisco Sour.
Heimark, Katrina, trans. ‘Guest Producer.’ El Piscos del Peru (blog), April 8, 2007. http://www.elpiscoesdelperu.com/web/index.php?veropt=detnoticia&id=621 (accessed March 2, 2021).
Regan, Gary. The Cocktailian Chronicles: Life with the Professor. London: Jared Brown, 2010.
By: Derek Brown