Johnny Schuler enters the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of piscos in the world

Considered the greatest defender of the Pisco Denomination of Origin, Johnny Schuler He has dedicated his life to the excellence of that elegant distillate. As an ambassador of our most famous spirit, he has traveled the world, educating about the history and characteristics of this drink. Today one of his wildest dreams came true, because was recognized as the owner of the largest collection of pisco in the worldcertificate that was awarded by the Guinness World Records book.

But how did this story start? His passion for our flagship product came at the end of the 1980s, after an invitation to be a judge in a pisco tasting contest in the city of Arequipa. “Previously, I had the vague belief that pisco sour could be prepared with any pisco. It was not until my participation in that competition that my palate discovered the true flavor of this distillate, which included a structure of extraordinary aromas and flavors.“, bill. It was love at first drink, as the author of “Pasión por el pisco. Routes and flavors” (2005) and host for eight years of the television program “Por las Rutas del Pisco con Johnny Schuler”.

From that day on, he devoted himself to the study of pisco, thus becoming one of its greatest champions. “I did not discover pisco, pisco discovered me”, he points out. Initially, without the intention of starting with a collection, Johnny began a journey through various wineries, consulting the producers about the characteristics that made their spirits so unique. Little by little, his repertoire of piscos continued to grow more and more, containing hundreds of copies of the eight pisco grapes: Quebranta, Negra Criolla, Mollar, Italia, Moscatel, Albilla, Torontel and Uvina.

“When I consulted the Guinness World Records book about the existence of a world record for the largest pisco collector, they told me that I could apply if I had a minimum of a thousand bottles. At that time, I had about nine hundred in my possession, however, I decided to wait until completing two thousand so that it becomes a difficult number to overcome“, Explain.

A) Yes, after five more years of inveterate search, Johnny Schuler was finally able to acquire the total of –curiously– 2022 bottles of pisco, which had to be identified with various parameters for each specimen, cataloged with the help of Lesly Mallqui, according to the Guinness World Records report. Variables such as the name, producer, production area, type of pisco and grape, alcoholic strength and denomination of origin were factors taken into account when sending the visual evidence of each of the distillates to the world record benchmark.

In this way, Johnny Schuler entered the Guinness World Records book as the owner of the largest collection of pisco in the world. “For me it is a pride to give one more contribution to the love that Peruvians have for our flagship product. I will not stop increasing my collection, thus leaving open the possibility that at some point they may be part of a museum that reflects this testimony of the history of pisco.”, he concludes.

His next steps consist of continuing to defend the Peruvian nature of pisco and position it in all corners of the world as the spirit drink of Peru. And it is that, Johnny considers that this is his commitment, function and passion with an industry founded on the basis of a great history.